Coal India prepares stocks for monsoon season
Published by Joseph Green,
Editor
World Coal,
Coal Secretary Anil Swarup has announced that Coal India has mined sufficient coal to meet the needs of power plants for the next 40 days. This places India in a comfortable stock position for a country familiar with summer blackouts and large imports of coal.
Adding to Coal India’s pit-head stocks of approximately 40 million t, India's 100 main thermal plants have 20 days of coal standing by ahead of the June-September monsoon season. This period sees power demand peak and coal output drop due to flooded mines.
At this stage last year the plants had just 11 days of stocks, encouraging experts to suggest that electricity generation may not be growing as fast as it should in India where one in four people still goes without power.
Power generation decreased 1% in April, after growing by 8.4% in the fiscal year ending in March.
Swarup gave no suggestion to the prospects of coal importation levels but did state that some firms will continue to buy from overseas clients based on long-term contracts.
Edited from source by Joseph Green. Source: Reuters
Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/coal/02062015/coal-india-prepares-stocks-monsoon-season-1044/
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