State-owned Coal India on Thursday said that its supply had exceeded pre-pandemic levels. The company’s coal supply reached about 206 million tons of coal to utilities from April to August. That represents an increase of 27% from April-August 2020 and 8% from April-August 2019. It also marked the sharpest year-on-year growth for the period in the last seven years, the company said.
However, market participants said that many utilities are on the verge of running out of coal. India is the world’s second-biggest coal importer despite having the world’s fourth-largest reserves. Coal accounts for nearly three-fourths of India’s electricity consumption. The country also experiences coal shortages periodically, which is often blamed on power producers who do not buy adequate coal in advance. Coal India has also blamed state-owned Indian Railways for the shortages.
