Volume growth to be in focus for Coal India

Coal India Ltd's (CIL) realization from coal sold through the e-auction route picked up sequentially in the three months ended December (Q3FY24), after falling for four straight quarters.

- Dipti Sharma

The e-auction premium over coal sold through fuel supply agreement (FSA) prices stood at 117% in Q3 against 84% in Q2 aided by higher global coal prices. But it's too soon to celebrate as e-auction realizations are poised to drop sequentially in Q4.

In a conference call with analysts on Monday, CIL's management has indicated that e-auction premium has fallen sharply in the ongoing quarter. However, this could be offset by higher e-auction volume. The management has pointed out e-auction volume can contribute about 15% of the overall pie in Q4.

For FY24 and FY25, CIL has trimmed its overall production guidance to 770 million tonnes (mt) and 838mt, respectively, from 780mt and 850mt, earlier. For the nine months ended December (9MFY24), production and offtake stood at 532mt and 552mt. During the period, offtake grew almost 9% year-on-year. Out of this, FSA volume contributed 89.5% of total volume, whereas e-auction formed 8.6% of total.