Despite the efforts of India’s Ministry of Coal and state-run miner Coal India Limited (CIL), the crisis of coal supply persists for sectors like steel, cement and aluminum, the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) said in a statement on Wednesday, December 15.
In a communication to India’s Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), FIMI has sought resumption of normal coal supplies to the steel, cement and aluminum industries which had been drastically curtailed by CIL, with dry fuel diverted to thermal power plants across the country which faced almost zero stocks.
“The situation for the power sector has improved to the current level of 10 days’ consumption equivalent stocks at thermal power plants, while on the other hand the steel, cement and aluminum industries are struggling to get uninterrupted supplies of coal and there is shortage of availability of rakes from national transporter Indian Railways (IR),” FIMI said in its communication to the PMO.
However, a CIL official said that the miner had supplied 81.22 million mt of coal during April-November 2021 to non-power sectors against a despatch of 79.69 million mt in the same period last year, up two percent, even after meeting the unprecedented demand from the power sector.
CIL is carrying close to 32 million mt of stocks and, with production poised to scale up in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year, coal stocks will increase further and CIL is ready to cater to the needs of the captive power sector of steel, cement and aluminum plants, the official said.