Coal India continues to do an admirable job in increasing its coal production. Coal India produced approximately 60.2 million tons of coal last month, which marks a month-on-month increase of 6.4 million tons (12%) and a year-on-year increase of 1.9 million tons (3%). Coal India’s production has continued to climb dramatically since September and has continued to lead to a rise in the nation’s power plant stockpiles.
Offtake totaled 60.7 million tons last month, which marks a month-on-month increase of 3.9 million tons (7%) and a year-on-year increase of 8.1 million tons (15%). Offtake has now increased on a year-on-year basis for ten consecutive months, with last month’s volume setting an all-time high.
The ongoing climb in Coal India's production and offtake has been a primary reason for the nation's power plant stockpiles rising to even higher levels recently. India’s power plant coal stockpiles ended last week at approximately 23.6 million tons, which is 1 million tons (4%) more than was stockpiled at the end of the previous week. While stockpiles have been climbing since mid-October, they are still down year-on-year by 13.3 million tons (-26%) and India's coal import prospects remain bullish.
Also helpful for Indian coal import prospects is that thermal coal-derived has returned to finding growth. India’s coal-derived electricity generation totaled approximately 93.4 billion kilowatt hours last month. This has marked a month-on-month increase of 10.9 billion kilowatt hours (13%) and is up year-on-year by 2 billion kilowatt hours (2%). Last month’s year-on-year growth has marked the largest year-on-year growth seen since August.
In addition, India's hydropower output has continued to decline on a month-on-month basis (which is normal for this year) and has also recently experienced only very small year-on-year growth. India’s hydropower output totaled approximately 8.4 billion kilowatt hours last month. This has marked a month-on-month decline of 1.4 billion kilowatt hours (-14%) and marks year-on-year growth of only 200 million kilowatt hours (2%). Previously, India's hydropower output in November had increased year-on-year by 16%, which marked the largest year-on-year growth seen all year.
