Coal India's (CIL) supplies to thermal power plants of the country shot up close to 6% to 23.5 million tonnes (MTs) during the first fortnight of October 2023 ahead, of the festive season. Comparatively the supplies were 22.2 MTs in the same period of October 2022.

The growth was posted at a time of sudden surge in power demand and even as unseasonal rains hit hard the operations in coal bearing areas of CIL's subsidiaries based in the eastern region of the country. Chhattisgarh based SECL also bore the brunt of the inclement weather.

The coal major's total supplies at 28.6 MTs during the first 15 days of October 2023 logged 16% growth compared to 24.6 MTs of same period in October 2022.

Progressively, CIL supplied nearly 319 MTs to the country's coal fired plants till 15th October FY 2024, which is a 12 MT jump in volume terms compared to 307 MTs of same period, FY 2023. The 4% growth recorded during this period is at par with current year's annual asking growth rate to power plants.

CIL was given a demand projection of 610 MT supply to the country's power plants for FY 2024 which is 4% more than what it supplied to this sector in FY 2023. CIL expects its supplies to exceed the projected target.

On a cumulative basis CIL's targeted commitment was 316 MTs to power sector till 15th October FY 2024 against which the company's supplies were ahead by 3 MTs at 319 MTs. CIL is confident of meeting the tasked target to the power sector.

CIL's supplies to all consuming sectors were 389.3 MTs during the referred period posting 9% growth compared to 356.6 MTs of same period last fiscal year.

With no letup in the output tempo, CIL's progressive production of 360 MTs till 15th October FY 2024 has logged a robust 11.6% year-on-year growth with 37.6 MTs expansion in volume terms. This growth is again higher than the fiscal's asking rate of around 11%.