Coal India moved more coal from April to September 2026 even as production fell. Its stockpile of raw coal nearly halved over those six months, leaving a smaller buffer for future dispatches.
The stock movement
The company’s 29 October presentation puts first-half offtake, or coal dispatched, at 384.20 million tonnes, up 7.6% from a year earlier. Production fell 2.5% to 321 million tonnes.
Stocks of raw coal dropped from 130.28 million tonnes on 1 April to 66.58 million tonnes on 30 September, a decline of 63.70 million tonnes, or 48.9%.
Inventory provides another source of coal for dispatch, alongside current production. A miner can therefore move more coal while extracting less, although these figures do not measure inventory’s precise contribution to the dispatch increase from a year earlier.
The profit comparison
Its consolidated results for July to September add financial context: revenue from operations rose 20.9% to Rs 44,178.74 crore, while total group profit after tax rose 57.1% to Rs 6,547.43 crore. Those comparisons use the regrouped figures from a year earlier: Rs 36,553.07 crore for revenue and Rs 4,167.18 crore for profit.
Using the older, originally reported revenue of Rs 30,186.70 crore would overstate growth. The company says it regrouped figures from the prior period for comparability but does not explain the cause in that note.
The Crunch
Coal India ended September with a smaller stockpile. The next operating test is whether production and remaining stocks can support continued dispatch growth. These are the miner’s inventories, so they cannot establish whether individual power plants have adequate fuel.
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