Indian state-run Coal India Ltd. produced 55.99 million mt of coal in January, against a target of 61.04 million mt, the company said in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange Thursday.
However, production was up 6% year on year and up 3% month on month.
CIL's output over the first 10 months of the current fiscal 2016-2017 (April-March) was 433.76 million mt, against a target of 478.57 million mt and up 1.7% year on year.
Offtake of the dry fuel in January stood at 51.35 million mt, against a target of 55.73 million mt, the company said.
Offtake in the first 10 months of the current fiscal was 443.12 million mt, against a target of 489.71 million mt.
The company did not state any reasons for not meeting the output and offtake targets.
However, sources said that CIL's output was affected by the accident at one of the mines of its subsidiary Eastern Coalfields Ltd., in which 18 miners were killed.
Output was also affected by low demand for power, large stockpiles at various power plants, and less offtake due to the central government's demonetization drive disrupting movement of coal.
CIL, which meets over 80% of the country's coal requirement, set a production target of 598 million mt for fiscal 2016-2017 and has plans to produce 1 billion mt by 2020.
Separately, India's second-largest coal producer, state-run Singareni Collieries Co. Ltd., has reported an output of 48.29 million mt for the first 10 months of the current fiscal, exceeding its target of 47.24 million mt, according to the latest data from the company.
However, SCCL's April-January output was down marginally by 01.39% year on year.
The company's April-January shipment volumes were 48.67 million mt, slightly more than its target of 47.02 million mt, but down by marginally by only 0.29% year on year, the company said.
SCCL's production in January was 5.88 million mt, up 2.6% year on year. Dispatches were also up by almost 14%, at 5.97 million mt, in January.
SCCL is jointly owned by the state government of Telangana (51% equity stake) and the central government (49%).
The company produced 60.38 million mt of coal in the last fiscal 2015-16, and has set an output target of 100 million mt for 2020.
SCCL operates 30 underground mines and 16 open-cast mines and supplies around 66% of its coal to power utilities in India.
The rest is sold to cement, captive power, sponge iron companies and other customers in India.
