India’s coal imports drop; domestic coal production is up by 20%
The Ministry of Coal on Sunday said that as of June 16, coal production by Coal India Ltd (CIL) is 28 percent more than its production last year in the same period. The domestic coal production target for the current financial year is 911 MT which is 17.2 percent more than the previous year.
Due to this, coal imports for blending by the domestic coal-based (DCB) power plants have dropped to 8.11 MT in the year 2021-22, which has been the lowest coal import in the last eight years.
In the last five years, the coal-based power generation has grown at a CAGR of 1.82 percent whereas the domestic coal supply to the power sector had grown at a CAGR of 3.26 percent. Thus, coal supply to the power sector has outpaced the growth in coal-based power generation and continues to do so in the present year.
The imported coal-based (ICB) power plants had imported coal of more than 45 MT per year from 2016-17 to 2019-20. However, coal import by the ICB power plants dropped to the lowest level of 18.89 MT in 2021-22 and the generation from these plants also dropped to 39.82 billion units (BU) in the year 2021-22 compared to 100+ BU which these plants have been generating since quite some time.
The Ministry said that the coal production is at 777 million tonnes (MT) in 2021-22. Domestic coal production continues to witness an upward trend in the current financial year as well.
The total domestic coal production in 2022-23, as of May 31, 2022, was 137.85 MT, which is 28.6 percent more compared to the production of 104.83 MT in the same period last year.
The DCB power plants have generated a record-high power of 3.3 BU per day in the month of June 2022 (till June 16, 2022). The coal stock at the DCB power plants during this period, however, has not depleted, rather the same has increased from 21.85 MT (as of June 1, 2022) to 22.64 MT (as of June 16, 2022). As of June 16, 2022, coal stock at different domestic coal mines was more than 52 MT, which is sufficient for about 24 days of the requirement of power plants.
In addition to that, about 4.5 MT of coal stock is available at various good shed sidings, private washeries and ports, and is waiting to be transported to power plants.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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