Coal production up 8% over previous month despite monsoons

Coal production in India rose about 8% on a month-on-month basis notwithstanding a lacklustre season owing to operational constraints triggered by monsoons and typically lower demand during the period. However, when assessed for the period until August since the commencement of the financial year, production slipped a marginal 0.6%.

India’s domestic production scaled 381.75 MT during the period compared to about 384 MT a year ago. In August, India produced 69.87 MT of coal higher than 64.86 MT in July, even though it fell short on its monthly target of 73.77 MT.

The public-sector enterprise Coal India was the greatest contributor to the overall production share. It accounted for approx. 76% of the overall production on a year-to-date basis.

Uptick in coal despatch

Additionally, despatch, that is, transporting and distributing coal to their consumers as power plants and industrial facilities increased 5.2% sequentially. Despatch to non-regulated sectors (NRS) remained relatively flat only rising 0.2% during the same period. Overall, the black commodity contributed to 63% of the power generation in August alone, and approx. 65% between April and August.

Production of 1.5 billion tonne by 2030

In response to a Parliamentary question this monsoon session, Coal Minister G. Kishan Reddy had stated most of the coal requirement in the country is being met through indigenous coal production. The import of coal primarily consists of essential imports, such as coking coal and higher-grade non-coking coal, as their domestic production is limited due to scarce reserves or non-availability.

India’s production of coal had crossed 1 billion tonne in FY 2024-25. The Minister in his response had sought, that to meet future demand through indigenous sources and reduce non-essential imports, the domestic production must increase 6-7% annually in the upcoming years to scale output to 1.5 billion tonne by 2029-30.