Coal India Limited's output down by 2 per cent, owing to cyclone Neelam and festival holidays

KOLKATA: Coal India's output dipped about 2 per cent in November from a year ago due to cyclone Neelam and holidays on account of festivals, according to its chairman. The state-owned miner produced 37.6 million tonne of coal during the month, compared with 38.4 million tonne in November 2011. Off-take, however, registered a 4.3 per cent month-on-month increase to 38.56 million tonne.

"Cyclone Neelam affected work for almost 10 days during early November. Almost all our mines were affected," S Narsing Rao told ET, adding that the holiday season further dampened output. Kolkata-based Coal India, the world's largest coal miner, accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the country's coal output.

Its coal stock at the end of November was 43 million tonne, compared with about 71 million tonne at the beginning of the year.

Its production during the April-November period was 265 million tonne, a growth of 6.8 per cent over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, while off-take was up 8.2 per cent to 292.62 million tonne. For 2012-13, Coal India has set a production target of 464.1 million tonne and an off-take target of 470 million tonne. The company is hopeful of meeting its targets as production generally picks up during the winter months.

In the first eight months of fiscal, the miner has achieved about 63 per cent of its production target and 56 per cent of its off-take target..