New Delhi [India], September 1 (ANI): Coal India Limited's coal production declined 5.7 per cent year-on-year in August 2026, while coal supplies increased 5.5 per cent during the month, according to provisional operational data filed by the company with the stock exchanges.

Coal India produced 47.5 million tonnes (MT) of coal in August, compared with 50.4 MT in the same month last year. Coal supplies, referred to as offtake in the filing, rose to 60.6 MT from 57.4 MT a year earlier.

The trend was similar during the first five months of the current financial year. Coal India's cumulative production during April-August stood at 267.5 MT, down 4.5 per cent from 280.2 MT in the corresponding period last year.

However, cumulative coal supplies increased 6.7 per cent to 322.9 MT during April-August, compared with 302.6 MT in the year-ago period. The company said the figures were provisional and were based on its ERP report generated on September 1.

Among Coal India's subsidiaries, Eastern Coalfields reported a 39.5 per cent rise in August production, while Western Coalfields and Central Coalfields recorded growth of 24.7 per cent and 19.5 per cent, respectively.

Production, however, declined 24.8 per cent at Northern Coalfields, 10.2 per cent at South Eastern Coalfields and 10 per cent at Mahanadi Coalfields during the month.

The August production decline comes after Coal India recorded an 8.42 per cent year-on-year increase in production to 50.35 MT in July. Its coal dispatches in July had risen 17.43 per cent to 63.67 MT, according to a Ministry of Coal release issued in August.

Coal supplies remain important for India's electricity sector. Coal and lignite-based power plants accounted for 69.54 per cent of the electricity supplied in the country during April-June 2026, according to a Ministry of Power reply in the Rajya Sabha.

The Ministry of Coal had said in August that the country's coal supply position for the power sector continued to remain adequate.

'The country's coal supply position for the power sector continues to remain adequate,' the ministry said, adding that as of August 4, about 148 MT of coal was available at thermal power plants, pitheads and in transit, sufficient to meet around 62 days of power-sector coal consumption. (ANI)