CIL allays supply worries as coal use goes up

Even as daily coal consumption by the country's thermal power plants increased sharply, Coal India Limited (CIL) allays the coal shortage apprehensions. There is a 168 Million Tonne (MT) coal buffer to meet the summer demand.

Coal stocks at domestic coal-based plants stood at 47.6 MTs (as on 23 May) while the coal inventory at CIL's own mine heads at a comfortable level of 113.5 MTs (24 May) is ahead by 10% year-on-year. This level is sufficient to meet 19 days of consumption. Added to this, around 3 MTs of coal is awaiting at transit points such as goods sheds, private washeries and ports. Rakes on Run, that is, coal in transit at any point of time is around 4 MTs making a total of 168 MTs of coal available in the system.

Compression of coal stock levels at coal fired plants during peak summer is a natural occurrence rather than a supply-side crisis.

Along with coal adequacy, there is around 50 MT in-situ mine coal on tap, ready for quicker extraction and supply if the demand necessitates.

Of the 21 plants categorized under criticality (as of 20 May) 11 are domestic coal-based plants of which 7 source their coal from CIL.

CIL has been corresponding with power plants to build up their stocks for peak demand periods in advance, when there is ample coal, especially in case of the plants located at difficult logistic points.

As such CIL has adequate quantity to meet the generation capacity of domestic coal-based plants.

Shares of Coal India Limited was last trading in BSE at Rs. 458.00 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 456.45. The total number of shares traded during the day was 209412 in over 3370 trades.

The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 462.50 and intraday low of 456.15. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 96047935.00.

Source : Equity Bulls

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CoalIndia INE522F01014 SupplyUpdate