Production Increase
Coal India to raise output after monsoon despite high stock, CMD Prasad says
This story was originally published at 15:40 IST on 28 August 2025
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By Avishek Rakshit
KOLKATA – After witnessing a decline in production during Apr-Jul on account of incessant rains in key mining areas, which led to flooding, and high inventory levels, Coal India Ltd. is planning to scale up production once the monsoon season is over, Chairman and Managing Director P.M. Prasad said Thursday.
"We are in constant touch with the power ministry and the railways to provide us with more rakes in areas under Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd., Talcher mines, and even (the area under) South Eastern Coalfields Ltd.," Prasad told the company's shareholders at Coal India's 51st Annual General Meeting. For the ongoing financial year ending March 2026, Coal India has set a production target of 875 million tonnes and a sales target of 900 million tonnes.
Prasad said power plants in the country have sufficient coal stocks and Coal India also has sufficient fossil fuel to meet any surge in coal demand. As of Wednesday, power plants in the country had 50.7 million tonnes of coal stocks. Of this, 46.8 million tonnes is domestic coal and around 3.92 million tonnes is imported coal.
Coal India is also burdened with excessive coal stocks at its pithead mines as it has 91.5 million tonnes of unsold inventory. Usually, Coal India considers an inventory of 30 million tonnes as optimal.
Prasad said coal production usually gets impacted during the rainy season but picks up afterwards. However, for the past one-and-a-half years, the world's largest coal miner has been facing low coal demand, which is impacting its sales.
During the June quarter, the Maharatna company reported an on-year drop of over 20% in its consolidated net profit to INR 87.4 billion, because of a 4% on-year decline in sales volumes and moderating realisations from e-auctions. The drop in Coal India's Apr-Jun sales volumes to 191 million tonnes also dragged its consolidated revenue down by 4.4% to INR 358.4 billion. Falling income from e-auctions added to the woes.
The trend of low demand continued in July as well, as sales volumes declined 11.3% on year to 53.7 million tonnes and production plunged 15.6% to 46.4 million tonnes.
Prasad said since the company has not increased coal prices to make up for increasing costs like fuel, it is impacting the revenue growth of the company. Also, the premium in coal e-auctions has declined to 30-33% currently from 50% a year ago, which is impacting the profits, he said.
Earlier in the day, Prasad had said that Coal India will continue to focus on providing coal at competitive prices for affordable power generation in an environment-friendly manner for the country's growth.
On Thursday, shares of Coal India ended 0.50% higher at INR 374.30 on the National Stock Exchange. End
Edited by Tanima Banerjee
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