Coal India Ltd (CIL) has stepped up coal supplies to power plants in the first three days of October amid recent concerns over coal availability in the power sector. According to the coal ministry, daily power-sector despatch remained robust at 1.74 MT, 1.79 MT and 1.71 MT on 28-30 September, and sustained the momentum in October at 1.75 MT, 1.87 MT and 1.81 MT on 1-3 October respectively. The company recorded growth of 10.6% year-on-year in coal supplies to the power sector during September, with power-sector coal despatch rising to 48.9 million tonnes (MT) from 44.2 MT a year earlier, recording an increase of 4.7 MT. CIL accounts for nearly four-fifths of its coal supplies to the power sector, making its enhanced supply efforts particularly significant for power plant operations.
Coal India produced 321 million tonnes (MT) of coal during the first half of FY27, achieving approximately 39% of its full-year production target of 815 MT, according to the company's provisional operational update released on October 1. Production during the April-September period was down 2.5% year-on-year from 329.1 MT in the corresponding period last year. The state-run miner will need to produce around 494 MT in the second half of FY27 to meet its full-year target, with production typically lower in the first half due to monsoon conditions and picking up in the second half of the year. With 151.4 MT of production added during July-September, the company's first-half production decline narrowed significantly from earlier forecasts.
Coal India's Q2 performance demonstrated robust demand across key sectors, with coal supplies reaching 186.04 MT, a 12.04% increase from the year-earlier quarter. Dispatches to the power sector rose 11% to 148.20 MT compared with 133.50 MT in Q2 of the previous fiscal. The company's production during the quarter increased 3.81% to 151.37 MT from 145.82 MT a year earlier. For the first six months of FY2026-27, CIL supplied 302.8 MT of coal to the power sector, compared with 285.4 MT in the corresponding period of the previous year, marking an increase of 17.4 MT, or 6.1%. Coal India has been able to support this increased supply through liquidating 63 MT of pithead coal inventories during the first six months of FY2026-27, indicating effective inventory management and utilization of existing stocks.
The improvement in coal supplies has coincided with higher domestic coal-based power generation, which rose to 640.05 billion units (BU) in the first half of FY27 from 582.5 BU in the corresponding period last year, an increase of about 9.9%. CIL's overall coal offtake in the first half of FY27 stood at 384.2 MT, up 7.6% from 357 MT in the year-ago period, with nearly 79% supplied to the power sector. The coal ministry attributed the improvement in supplies to enhanced evacuation, better synchronisation between production and despatch and utilisation of pithead stocks. Coal India shares opened at ₹421.2 on October 1, 2026, against the previous close of ₹425, and remained volatile throughout the session, reflecting market confidence in the company's operational performance.
Among Coal India's subsidiaries, Western Coalfields (WCL) recorded the strongest production growth in September at 85.5%, followed by Central Coalfields (CCL) at 27.5% and Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) at 22.3%. Production at Northern Coalfields (NCL) declined 26.1% during the month. On the offtake front, MCL reported 19.2 MT in September, up 15.1% year-on-year, while WCL recorded the sharpest increase at 92.7%. NCL's offtake, however, declined 21.3% during the month. The company is also expanding mechanised evacuation infrastructure, with CIL currently having 46 coal handling plants-cum-silos with a combined mechanised, closed-loop evacuation capacity of 432 MT, and considering additional such facilities at upcoming greenfield mines.
