Coal India’s profit more than doubles as power demand surges

Coal India’s profit more than doubles as power demand surges

State-run Coal India Ltd’s quarterly profit more than doubled as production and offtake volumes at the world’s largest coal miner increased due to higher power demand amid elevated global prices.Consolidated net profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30 rose to 60.44 billion rupees ($737.88 million) from 29.37 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said on Monday.

Its quarterly coal production jumped 10.6% to 139.2 million tonnes, while output for the April-September period climbed 19.7%.The results come after a spike in power demand, which has been growing at its fastest pace in at least 38 years, forced India to reverse a policy measure to cut coal imports to zero and reopen closed mines.

The company’s total revenue from operations grew 28.1% to 298.38 billion rupees. Coal India had said last month that its total coal offtake grew 7.8% year-on-year to 332 million tonnes in the April-September period.In May, the company also said it will open what is expected to become one of the country’s biggest coal mines. The output will initially start in the October-December quarter at an annualized rate of about 2 to 5 million tonnes.