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Saturday, Mar 21, 2009
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Mar 21, 2009 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio | Blogs |
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Coal Corporate - Performance Lower offtake hinders CIL’s production plans
Pratim Ranjan Bose Kolkata, March 20 Inadequate offtake during the peak production months of February and March may have spoiled Coal India Ltd’s production plan during this fiscal. As the pithead stockpile of coal is increasing by nearly two lakh tonnes a day, reportedly due to non-availability of adequate number of wagons, CIL is now going slow on production. Recent estimates suggest that the company’s production during the current quarter is lagging much behind the target. Since January-March quarter is traditionally the peak production months for coal companies, CIL may even miss the targeted production level of 405 million tonnes (mt) for 2008-09. CIL produced approximately 380 mt in 2007-08. According to CIL sources, though the availability of wagons was better than the previous year, the demand-supply gap in wagons had come in the way of the company’s plan to post a higher growth in production. “Coal offtake from Talcher under Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) and Korba under South Eastern Coalfields (SECL) – the two most prominent dispatch centres – is lagging much behind the targeted levels due to non-availability of adequate number of wagons leading to rise in pithead inventory,” a CIL official told Business Line. “While we could have gone ahead to meet the production targets at the cost of dramatic rise in inventory, we preferred to go slow on production,” the source said. Interestingly, as on March 31, 2008, CIL had 46 mt of pithead stock – which was nearly 12 per cent of its annual production, created over decades. Earlier this year, the Union Coal Minister, Mr Santosh Bagrodia, announced a plan to liquidate this stock through e-auction to meet the demand shortfall. The initiative was partly successful as it brought down the stock to 43.5 mt in the first nine months. “However, as it appears now, irrespective of our best efforts and a slow down in production, we may end 2008-09 with the same level of pithead inventory as in 2007-08,” the official said. More Stories on : Coal | Performance | Power
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