India Misses April-July Coal Production Target by 5% Even as Economy Grows

India’s coal production fell short of the government’s target by about 5 percent in the April-July period even as the economy was poised to grow at the fastest pace in 2 1/2 years.

Output in the April-July period was 156.7 million metric tons, short of the 164.6 million official target, according to a note by mjunction Services Ltd., a trader backed by Tata Steel Ltd. and Steel Authority of India Ltd. Production rose from 155.4 million tons a year earlier.

India needs to double the pace of growth in power-station coal supply to help drive the country’s economic expansion, Credit Suisse Group AG said in July in a note. Supplies should grow as much as 11 percent from an average of 5 percent to 6 percent to support expansion in gross domestic product of as much as 10 percent, the bank said.

Output in July at 37.8 million tons was higher than 36.2 million a year earlier while falling short of a targeted 39.95 million, mjunction said.

Gross domestic product rose 8.8 percent in the three months ended June 30 from a year earlier, according to the median of 27 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. The statistics office is scheduled to release the data tomorrow at 11 a.m. in New Delhi.

Thermal capacity additions by India’s power utilities of 1,223 megawatts in July fell short of the 1,998-megawatt target. Indian power plants imported 1.53 million tons of coal in July compared with a 2.92 million-ton target, mjunction said.

There were 24 coal-fired generators with coal stockpiles to last less than seven days compared with a typical 25 to 30 days as of July 31, according to the Central Electricity Authority report.

To contact the reporters on this story: Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at dinakar@bloomberg.net;

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