State-owned CIL on Wednesday said the overall offtake of coal increased by 8 percent to 51.3 million tonnes last month, prompted by increased demand for the dry fuel from non-power sectors. The supply by Coal India (CIL) to non-power sectors was up by a robust 46 percent during the month, the PSU said in a statement.
“CIL’s off-take was 51.3 million tonnes (MTs) in November of the ongoing fiscal, an increase of 3.8 MT compared to 47.5 MTs of the same month last year,” it said. Sectors other than power accounted for the entire increase.
Coal production at 51.7 MT in November clocked a growth of 3.3 percent, with a 1.7 MT uptick in absolute terms. CIL had produced 50 MT of coal in November 2019.
With the non-power consumers showing a tendency to lift more coal, CIL’s supply to this segment has risen to 12.3 MT in November, logging a growth of 46 percent compared to 8.4 MT in November last fiscal. Non-power sectors’ lifting accounted for 24 percent of the last month’s total despatch. This segment predominantly consists of cement, sponge iron, captive power plants, and a host of other industries. The growth in supplies to the non-power sectors till November was 14 percent at 80.6 MT.
“We are reorienting our marketing plans. With the demand from the power sector yet to boom fully we are concentrating our efforts on non-power consumers to expand our sales volume. Till there is demand resurgence from the power sector, we shall follow this, which is helping us,” a senior executive of the company said.