Companies feel the heat of an unusual summer; demand drops for coal, ACs

Unseasonal rain, high number of heatwave days upend business cycle of several sectors

It has been an unusual summer in India with conflicting weather patterns prevailing in different parts of the country, with variegated impacts on business.

While the North had unseasonal rain, the East and South sweltered with a historically high number of “heatwave” days. But apart from the weather vagaries, these erratic events have upended the business cycle of several sectors, mainly 

agriculture, beverages, and consumer durables.
 

Even the sectors of power generation and coal mining have had to re-work their plans because the demand cycle changed in several parts of the country.
 

With the highest impact being on agricultural produce, the