Production and supplies at India's biggest state-controlled coal producer Coal India (CIL) rose in August on an uptick in utility demand as power demand edged higher, after falling for three straight months.
CIL produced 50.4mn t of coal in August, up by 9.3pc from a year earlier and 9pc from July, provisional company data show. Supplies, including dispatches to utilities and other coal consumers, totalled 56.7mn t in August, rising by 7.6pc on the year and by 6pc from July, according to the data.
But CIL's production and supplies remained under pressure in the April-August period — the first five months of the company's 2025-26 financial year ending 31 March 2026. CIL produced 290.4mn t of coal during the period, down by 3.5pc from a year earlier, while its supplies were down by 3.3pc to 312.1mn t compared with the same period a year earlier. This was in line with broad weakness in utility coal demand over the last few months.
The increase in production and supplies in August comes as power demand rose last month, exacerbating stock draw down at power plants, boosting utility coal demand. India's coal-fired generation, which meets most of the country's power requirements, likely rose last month from a year earlier after declining for the previous four months. The coal-fired generation rose by 1.6pc from a year earlier to 97.25TWh during 1-30 August, data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) show.
The overall supplies rose at a time when inventories at power plants eased on the month, but the stock position remained elevated compared with a year earlier. Combined coal inventories at Indian power plants reached 50.48mn t as of 31 August, down from 54.24mn t as of 31 July, but up from 39.71mn t a year earlier, the data show.
The increase in domestic supplies has capped India's demand for seaborne cargoes, especially from the power sector. India imported 11.17mn t of thermal coal in August, down from 12.19mn t a year earlier, according to provisional data from analytics firm Kpler.
