Total coal production in India declined 2.03 per cent in the financial year 2020-21 to 716 million tonnes as compared to production level of 730.87 million tonnes in the previous year, according to provisional coal statistics from the Ministry of Coal.

The latest output is also lower than the level seen in 2018-19, when the annual production stood at 729 million tonnes.

In 2020-21, coal production stayed under 50 million tonnes during each of the first six months and resumed growth from October, reaching 96 million tonnes in March.

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Coal India’s production declined by 1 per cent to 596 million tonnes during the fiscal year 2020-21. The public-sector miner accounted for 83 per cent of India’s total production.

On the other hand, the production from captive coal blocks in the country grew 8 per cent to 66 million tonnes.

Production of thermal coal in the country stood at 671 million tonnes, while that of coking coal was 45 million tonnes. At 37 million tonnes, the annual production of lignite in 2020-21 has been the lowest in the past 10 fiscal years.

As the highest thermal coal-producing State, Chhattisgarh produced 158 million tonnes, accounting for 24 per cent of the overall thermal coal production, followed by Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. Jharkhand, which accounts for nearly all of India’s coking coal production, produced 44 million tonnes of coking coal.

Imports also subdued

Coal imports to India declined by 13.5 per cent to 215 million tonnes. The import of thermal coal during 2020-21 declined by 17 per cent to 164 million tonnes, worth ₹70,602 crore. The import of coking coal declined by 1 per cent to 51 million tonnes, worth ₹45,436 crore.

The lion’s share was exported by Indonesia, which supplied 96 million tonnes of coal to India during the fiscal year. Australia exported 55 million tonnes to India, and was also the largest supplier of coking coal.