South Eastern Coalfields joins 150-mt coal production club in FY23.

South Eastern Coalfields (SECL) has become the second state-run Coal India (CIL) company to reach the milestone of producing more than 150 million tonnes (mt) of coal in the current financial year (FY).

Sambalpur-based Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) was the first CIL entity to join the club this FY.

According to a company spokesperson, SECL crossed the mark last week. This was the fourth time that the Chhattisgarh-based CIL entity had crossed the 150-mt figure since inception. SECL had been CIL’s highest coal-producing company till 2021-22, when MCL recorded 168.2 mt of coal production to top the chart. SECL could produce 148 mt of coal last year.

In the past three years, SECL’s coal production has decreased. After Prem Sagar Mishra took over as the chairman and managing director of SECL in February 2022, the company re-designed the business strategy and focused on the production. “The efforts are paying off and the company is regaining its lost position fast,” a senior company official said.

According to an SECL spokesperson, of the 150 mt of coal produced in FY23, about 130 mt have been dispatched to power plants, which is about 10 mt more compared to the same period last year.

Though SECL has started showing an upward trend in the production and performance, it will have to struggle hard to retain the position it had held till two years ago.

The MCL has already surpassed its coal production target of 176 MT set for the financial year 2022-23, registering growth of over 15 per cent.

The SECL will face challenges even to achieve the target of 182 mt it had set for the current financial year. With an average monthly production of 18 mt in the past three months, it would have to produce 30 mt of coal in another two weeks before the closure of the financial year.

BS