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# Coal India Moat Analysis: Score & Risks
- URL: https://www.moatmarginresearch.com/coal-india-moat/
- Published: 2026-08-16T16:50:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-22T05:13:30.000Z
- Author: A K Karthikeyan
- Tags: First-pass note, Coverage

Moat Note · First-pass

## Coal India Ltd.

A first-pass moat teardown of Coal India Ltd., built from single-pass filing evidence. Free note — provisional, and the full two-pass deep dive may revise it.

**Moat & Margin**16 Aug 2026 First-pass · \~3 min

4.89 / 10

NARROWProcess/Data-led

First-pass narrow read — primary edge in Cost Advantage. Provisional, single-pass evidence.

Provisional score · subject to modification based on new evidence

Coal India Ltd. scores **4.89** on MoatSCORE 6.0 — a narrow moat in Oil & Gas. This is a **first-pass note**: the dimensional read and the filing receipts below come from a single GFIP evidence pass, not the full two-pass deep corpus behind our flagship deep dives. Provisional — published free while the deep version is queued.

The teardown 

## Seven dimensions of moat

Ordered by contribution. Each dimension carries a verified filing quote, graded **\[M\]** mechanism or **\[O\]** outcome.

D3Cost Advantage5.7

M · Mechanism✓ Verified verbatim

“specific energy Consumption for CIL as a whole, during 2021-22 was 7.34 kWh/T as against 7.86 kWh/T during 2020-21 with an overall decrease of 6.61%.”

**Coal India Ltd.** · FY2021-22 Annual Report · p.62

D4Price Discretion5.7

M · Mechanism✓ Verified verbatim

“Jan, the average e-auction premium was something like 54%, but in absolute terms, I think it's around INR2,700 per ton”

**Coal India Ltd.** · Earnings Call · p.13

D6Efficient Scale5.7

M · Mechanism✓ Verified verbatim

“Your company's capital expenditure of Rs. 15,400 crores in 2021-22 was the highest ever registering a growth of 15.94% compared to the CAPEX of Rs. 13,283 crores of FY21”

**Coal India Ltd.** · Earnings Call · p.7

D5Intangible Assets4.7

M · Mechanism✓ Verified verbatim

“In order to protect these intellectual assets and maintain their exclusivity, we file patent applications for various assets produced as a result of our research activities.”

**Coal India Ltd.** · Annual Report · p.88

D1Network Effects4.5

M · Mechanism✓ Verified verbatim

“if we achieve some production of 630 to 640 and patch of about 700 types that will be the most practical thing”

**Coal India Ltd.** · Earnings Call · p.7

D2Switching Costs4.5

M · Mechanism✓ Verified verbatim

“Evacuation facilities have historically constrained the growth”

**Coal India Ltd.** · Annual Report · p.13

D7Counter-PositioningExcluded—

Excluded for this archetype.

D8Ungoverned RiskUnscored · Layer 2.5

D8 rating: **ADEQUATE**. Not part of the moat score — it governs the cost of equity and the fade window. First-pass; not yet deep-reviewed.

The barrier gate 

## The barrier gate — first-pass

Replication — can a rival copy it?5.0

How hard it is for a rival to copy the edge (first-pass estimate).

Bypass — can a rival route around it?5.0

How easily a rival can route around the edge (first-pass estimate).

Effective barrier 5 — below 6, so the band is capped narrow. First-pass estimate.

What would change our mind

1. **Deep two-pass review.** This draft rests on a single GFIP evidence pass; the full 10-year AR + concall corpus may move the read.
2. **The barrier gate.** A firmer replication or bypass estimate is the most likely thing to shift the band.
3. **Adverse events.** Any governance, regulatory or funding shock captured in D8 could re-rate the fade window.

First-pass note — provisional single-pass MoatSCORE 6.0 read, not the full deep dive. Educational research, not investment advice; no buy/sell recommendation, no price target. Moat & Margin is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or Investment Adviser.

**Where this note fits.** This company is one of **509 Indian companies** we have scored for moat durability — 370 narrow, 126 narrow-trending-wide, none wide. Every score, dimension by dimension, is free in the [Moat Screener](https://www.moatmarginresearch.com/moat-screener/).