India: Met Coke import offers shoot up, domestic prices follow suit

Landed prices of metallurgical coke, imported from China, have recovered considerably in India.

Prices have been boosted by pent-up demand after gradual easing of the pandemic-induced lockdown restrictions over the past few months.

Furthermore, India’s domestically produced met coke prices have also been spiraling upwards amid supply tightness, coupled with the continuing recovery in demand from steelmakers.

Indian met coke imports rise in August

Indian met coke imports have increased for the second consecutive month in August as most of the country’s largest steel manufacturers have normalized production operations.

Indian met coke imports were 168,331 t in August — up by 8% m-o-m as against 155,832 t imported during the previous month of July.

More importantly, the country’s met coke imports had surged by as much as 51% m-o-m in July, compared with 103,425 t in June.

India reduces dependence on China for met coke imports

China’s share in met coke exports to India has come off from the highs.

Up until early last year, the Indian market was receiving large quantities of met coke from its northern neighbor at prices well below the cost of production in the originating country.

Starting last fiscal, however, Indian importers are reducing their met coke procurement from China. India-based trading firms, and major steel-producing end-users like ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel, are increasingly relying on alternative source countries such as Poland, Colombia Japan, Indonesia, Russia et al.

CoalMint’s latest vessel lineup data reveals that an aggregate shipment volume of 221,488 t of imported met coke is expected to be received by 26 Sep’20 in India — 182,943 t at Hazira in Gujarat and 38,545 t at Mangalore in Karnataka.

Notably, all of these inbound met coke consignments are being sourced from different countries, other than China, viz. Poland (132,943 t), Russia (50,000 t), Japan (20,516 t) and Indonesia (18,029 t).

Price Assessments

Indian import prices of Chinese-origin metallurgical coke are currently assessed at around $278.00/t and $273.00/t for the 64% CSR and the 62% CSR grades respectively on CNF India basis.

Indian domestic met coke prices of the blast furnace grade are currently assessed at around INR 22,000/t (east coast) and INR 23,000/t (west coast).

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By Aditya Sinha