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Coal India Ltd., India's largest coal miner reported a 10.3 percent production increase in the month of December compared to the same period last year. Overall production figure of 66.4 million tonnes was the highest since March of 2022, when production stood at 80.3 million tonnes.

On the other hand, offtake in December saw low-single-digit growth, rising 3.6 percent from December last year to 62.7 million tonnes.

Bharat Coking Coal, Central Coalfields, Western Coalfields and South-eastern Coalfields reported double-digit growth in production for the month of December. These four units contributed to 51.5 percent of the overall production for December. All seven units of Coal India saw an increase in production.

For the current financial year, Coal India's production has reached 479 million tonnes. For the full year, the company has guided for production to be 700 million tonnes.

In order to meet its production guidance, Coal India will have to produce another 221 million tonnes during the January-March period. During the same period last year, the company had produced 209.1 million tonnes.

Coal India has mentioned in the past that the company is confident of achieving its production targets for the financial year as production in the second half is much higher than the first half.

The state-run miner has also planned on increasing raw coking coal production from existing mines by up to 26 million tonnes. It has identified nine new mines with peak rate capacity (PRC) of about 22 million tonnes by financial year 2025.

Last month, Coal India had issued Letter of Acceptance for seven greenfield coal projects to be developed through private mine operators and developers. The seven projects have a production capacity of 100 million tonnes per year. The company's investment of Rs 20,600 crore will largely be spent on land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement.

Coal India's shares ended 2022 with gains of over 50 percent, emerging as the second best performer on the Nifty 50 index. It was also the stock's best annual performance since its listing in November 2010.

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