nagpur as governmentrun coal sector is fast improving the production score it is also staring at a glut the offtake by industries consuming coal is not matching the rate at which production is growing power sector which is the biggest consumer of coal has slowed down there are reports of fall in electricity demand throughout the country which has led to an overall reduction in plant load factor plf the drought in marathwada and other parts of the state is also taking its toll mahagenco has seen a major fall in agriculture demand due to the drought due to nonavailability of water farmers are not running agricultural pumps for the rabi crop steel and cement sectors which also require coal are too going through recession citybased western coalfields limited wcl is among the coal india limited cil arms having seen a major impact so far it has been a tight rope balance but if the situation continues wcl may be facing a storage problem say sources here in wcl the power sector has lifted 24 million tons coal as on december 2015 as compared to 226 million tons in same period last year though there has been a yearonyear growth there are apprehensions that the trend may not continue if figures for december 2015 are compared to the same month last year there has been a flat growth figures for january are yet to be compiled on yeartoyear basis a host of sectors like steel ceramic cement chemicals and paper have seen a negative growth if the overall figures are checked there is growth with 315 million tons of coal lifted by consumers as against 3015 million tons last year in wcl but it has to be sustained say sources the pace at which coal production is growing is close to double than the rate at which offtake is increasing in wcl as against a production growth of 7 consumers offtake has gone up by 45 only as far as cil on the whole is concerned the production is growing at 98 and consumption at 96 the situation is well within control said an official dealing with the subject the source also agreed that there has been a fall in demand from power cement and steel sectors the over 100 power plants under cil have 34 million tons of coal in all which is equal to 26 days stock at the same time the plf is also down which indicates the demand will be low a source in mahagenco said the staterun company has reduced production by 500mw fall in demand is also one of the reasons the plant in parli is not working due to water shortage again on account of drought coal meant for parli was being distributed among other plants in such a situation mahagenco plans to stop lifting the parli plants quota a source in cement sector said demand for the commodity is down due to slump in real estate sector construction activity has come down