India Achieves 47 % growth in Coal Production during last Nine Years

Tags: Economy/Finance National News

During the last nine years, India's total coal production has increased by 47 percent to 893.08 million tonnes (MT) and supply has reached 877.74 million tonnes, registering a growth of 45.37 percent.

An overview of the news

• In FY2023, the country has made a huge jump in the history of coal production with 893.08 MT.

• As per the action plan for 2023-24 of the Ministry of Coal, there is a target of 1012 million tonnes of coal production in the financial year 2023-24 by increasing overall production, efficiency, stability and adoption of new technologies.

• During the financial year 2022-23, the Ministry of Coal has signed agreements for a total of 23 coal mines with a cumulative peak rated capacity (PRC) of 33.224 MT per annum.

• It is expected that 25 coal blocks will be allotted for commercial mining during the financial year 2023-24.

Mission 'Coking Coal'

• Mission 'Coking Coal' has been launched by the government in August 2021 with a roadmap that will suggest ways to increase production and utilization of domestic coking coal in India by 2030.

• In this mission, mainly recommendations related to new exploration, increasing production, increasing washing capacity, auction of new coking coal mines have been made.

Objective of Mission 'Coking Coal'

• To increase coking coal production from 52 million tonnes (MT) in FY2022 to 140 MT in FY2030.

• To increase coking coal washing capacity from 23 MT in FY2022 to 61 MT in FY2023.

Use of Coking Coal

• It is mainly used in the manufacture of steel through the blast furnace route.

• Domestic coking coal generates very high ash content (mostly between 18%-49%) which is not suitable for direct use in blast furnaces.

• To reduce the ash percentage, the coking coal is washed and Indian prime and medium coking coal (<18% ash) is blended with imported coking coal (<9% ash) before use in the blast furnace.