Coal India unable to meet supply targets

Supplies from Coal India Ltd fell substantially short of the targeted levels during the first four months of this fiscal, according to official sources. While data for August are yet to be released, sources told Business Line that the total supplies till August were lagging behind the target.  According to a company publication, CIL had targeted to increase its supplies to major consumer sectors (consuming over 99 per cent of the coal produced by the company) by 15 per cent to 152 million tonne during April-July 2010, as against 131 mt supplied during the corresponding period in the last fiscal. However, the supplies increased by a mere 2.4 per cent to 134.47 mt during the period.  The power sector being the single largest consumer - consuming 70 per cent of the coal produced by CIL - faced the brunt of the supply shortage. According to CIL data, as against a targeted 107 mt representing a 14-per-cent increase, actual supplies to the thermal power plants during the April-June period were 95.28 mt, representing a 1.5-per-cent increase over the corresponding period last year.  Sources attributed the situation to a combination of logistics issues, including non-availability of wagons and CIL's failure to arrange road transportation from the mines to the nearest railheads.  While non-availability of wagons was blamed for affecting offtake from Mahanadi Coalfields and Central Coalfields (North Karanpura mines), the bottleneck in transportation (by road) from the pithead to the railway siding was reported from a large number of areas.  Among the relatively smaller consumption groups, the cement sector received more coal than promised. As against a targeted supply of 2.44 mt, the cement plants were supplied 3.13 mt.