Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOC), the country’s second-largest pet coke producer, has steeply increased pet coke prices from its various refineries for this month.
IOC has revised pet coke price at Koyali refinery for road supplies to INR 8,000/t over its last month’s price of INR 6,500/t, an increase of INR 1,500/t. Price for rake loading has been also increased by INR 1,500/t to INR 7,800/t from INR 6,300/t in the last month.
Pet coke price at Panipat refinery for general states has been revised to INR 8,420/t from INR 7,020/t, an increase of INR 1,400/t. Pet coke Price for Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh is also revised to INR 8,520/t from INR 7,120/t, an increase of INR 1,400/t.
Pet coke price for road supplies at Paradip refinery is revised to INR 7,910/t over its last month’s price of INR 6,360/t, an increase of INR 1,550/t. Similarly, the price for rake supply is also revised to INR 7,610/t from INR 6,060/t, an increase of INR 1,550/t.
Pet coke price ex-Haldia refinery has been rolled over at INR 6,340/t for road supplies. The price applicable for rake supplies has been also maintained at INR 6,040/t.
Price Commentaries
Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), India’s largest pet coke producer, has increased its price by INR 518/t ex-Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat in the current month.
RIL’s current price increase follows a sharp hike of INR 1,050/t in the last month of July. Earlier in May this year, however, RIL had substantially decreased its price by INR 1,223/t followed by a moderate reduction of INR 195/t in June.
The trend was followed by the country’s third largest producer, Nayara Energy (erstwhile Essar Oil). However, IndianOil responded differently and has increased prices at its Koyali, Panipat and Paradip refineries by varying amounts, while maintaining prices at Haldia refinery.
Notably, there has not been any price alteration at Haldia refinery since Aprril this year — possibly because the newly commissioned delayed coker unit (DCU) at Haldia refinery is still under stabilization and product availability is restricted.
At Panipat, the price difference of INR 100/t has been maintained from last month for northern states as compared to the rest of India. While the price for rake supplies is lower than road supplies at Koyali by INR 200/t, it is lower by INR 300/t at Paradip and Haldia refineries.
Current Market Scenario
India’s domestic demand for pet coke has increased gradually after certain relaxations have been provided during the recent months as part of the graded lifting of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
With the steady resumption of infrastructural activities, the demand for cement has gone up, in turn driving the demand for pet coke, which is mostly used in cement kilns. Several major cement plants have already increased their production levels to over 50-60% and are further ramping up outputs in line with the further easing of governmental curbs under “Unlock 3.0”.
Even as cement manufacturers are actively scaling up production operations and thus limping back to normalcy, it would take some more time for pet coke demand to return to the ‘pre-Covid’ levels. This, however, clearly depends on flattening the Covid-19 infection curve in India.
By Aditya Sinha
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