Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) has increased petroleum coke price with effect from 1st Oct’20 to INR 8,596/t ex-Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat, over its last month’s price of INR 7,894/t — an increase of INR 702/t.
Nayara Energy (erstwhile Essar Oil) has also increased pet coke price to INR 8,600/t ex- Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, over its last month’s price of INR 7,920/t — an increase of INR 680/t.
Indian-delivered prices for seaborne petroleum coke have increased further over last month amid persistent supply tightness in the US Gulf Coast (USGC) region, coupled with firm demand outlook in Asian markets.
The current average price of US-origin pet coke (6.5% sulphur) is assessed at around US$ 92-93 per tonne (t) on CNF India basis, compared with US$ 85-86/t in the last fortnight. This indicates an increase of US$ 7/t over the past two-week period.
Offers for Saudi-origin pet coke (9% sulphur) are presently hovering in the range of US$ 87-88/t CNF India, as against the earlier price of around US$ 81-82/t. This indicates an increase of US$ 6/t in last two weeks.
Price Commentaries
RIL’s current price increase follows three consecutive hikes of INR 626/t, INR 1,050/t and INR 518/t in the previous months of September, August and July respectively. 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.
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOC), the country’s second-largest pet coke producer, is yet to revise pet coke prices from its various 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.
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.
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