Coal India produced approximately 51.6 million tons of coal last month, which marks a month-on-month decline of 3.1 million tons (-6%) but a year-on-year increase of 11.6 million tons (29%). This 29% growth is just shy of the 30% growth seen in May which marked the largest year-on-year growth since September 2020. Also of note is that the first six months of this year have now seen Coal India’s production grow year-on-year by 41.1 million tons (13%). The strength has helped allow India’s power plant stockpiles to continue to increase.
Offtake (amount sent to customers) totaled 59 million tons last month, which marks a month-on-month decline of 2.2 million tons (-4%) but a year-on-year increase of 7.7 million tons (15%). Offtake has now increased on a year-on-year basis for sixteen straight months (production has increased on a year-on-year basis for fifteen straight months). The first six months of this year have now seen offtake increase year-on-year by 32.8 million tons (10%).
Also of note is that India’s power plant coal stockpiles ended last week at 27.2 million tons, which is 700,000 tons (3%) more than was stockpiled at the end of the previous week and up year-on-year by 1 million tons (4%). Stockpiles have now increased for seven consecutive weeks. They can now meet 10 days of demand, while the normal requirement for this time of year is still to meet 24 days of demand. Despite the ongoing rise in stockpiles, India's coal import demand has remained strong. As we have been detailing in our Weekly Dry Bulk Reports, thermal coal-derived electricity generation in India has remained robust. The last three months have seen India’s coal-derived electricity generation grow year-on-year by an average of 18%. June most recently saw India’s coal-derived electricity generation total approximately 105.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, which has marked year-on-year growth of 24%.
