Pan-India coal supply fell by 1.91 per cent on an annual basis to 89.22 million tonnes (mt) during May 2025, the first such fall in nine months as despatch by Coal India (CIL) declined.

However, despatch was higher by almost 2 per cent on a month-on-month basis. Prior to this, all-India coal despatch had declined by 6.35 per cent y-o-y to 70.39 mt in August 2024, which was an outlier month as both production and despatch fell due to heavy rains.

As per the latest Coal Ministry data, India’s cumulative coal production rose by 2.83 per cent y-o-y to 86.34 mt last month.

During May 2025, Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) as well as Captives/ Others registered a growth of 3.36 per cent y-o-y and 12.58 per cent y-o-y by despatching 5.85 mt and 18.07 mt, respectively.

However, Coal India (CIL) registered a negative growth of 5.69 per cent on an annual basis by despatching 65.40 mt coal, its first annual decline in 3 months.

Despatch to the power sector fell by 1.68 per cent y-o-y to 72.98 mt. While, the supply to the non-regulated sector (NRS) fell by 2.91 per cent (y-o-y) to 16.34 mt.

Under NRS, supply to the sponge iron industry fell by 4.35 per cent y-o-y, despatch to Other industries was also lower by 4.64 per cent on an annual basis. Steel (up 6.66 per cent y-o-y) and cement (up 15.24 per cent y-o-y) were the only two sectors in positive territory.

Analysts said that the decline could be due to lower demand for coal as unseasonal rains brought down summer temperatures thereby leading to lower electricity consumption.

Consequently, coal-based power generation fell by 9.27 per cent y-o-y in May 2025. Similarly, overall power generation last month was lower by 5.49 per cent on an annual basis.

Coal based power generation decreased by 4.24 on a monthly basis. However, cumulative power generation increased marginally by 0.77 per cent y-o-y in May 2025.

As per the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), India’s energy consumption fell by 4 per cent y-o-y to 148.7 BUs. Unseasonal rains and early onset of the monsoon kept temperatures lower than usual, leading to reduced electricity demand.

Lower despatch of the commodity, which accounts for a lion’s share of India’s power generation, also reflects in the number of railway rakes deployed to transport the resource.

Overall, the rake movement fell by almost 1.88 per cent y-o-y to 318.7 rakes per day. The rake movement for the power sector fell by roughly 2.38 per cent y-o-y to 287 rakes per day.

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Published on June 13, 2025