Coal allocation to power sector dips 29 per cent

Coal India’s coal allocation under special forward e-auction for the power sector declined 28.7 per cent to 4.74 million tonnes (MT) in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal (Q1FY21).

Coal India Limited (CIL) had allocated 6.65 MT of coal in April-June period of the last fiscal. Under this special scheme, coal allocation by the Maharatna firm declined from 0.88 MT in June 2019 to 0.64 MT in the last month.

As on June 30, 2020, out of the total power capacity, 62.2 per cent belongs to thermal. Around 53.6 per cent of the total thermal belongs to coal and Coal India is one of the major suppliers of coal to the power sector. Due to COVID-19 impact, the PSU companies are going through challenging times as the supply and demand both have been disrupted severely. Further, many states and major cities have been imposing lockdown, which would remain an overhang on the sector.

Coal India is the world’s largest coal mining company. It also produces non-coking coal as well as coking coal of various grades for diverse applications.

The stock of Coal India in today’s trading session opened at Rs 130.90 apiece as against the previous close of Rs 129.95 but later, it cooled down and at 12.22 pm, it was trading in a negative