Indian pet coke import prices recede contrary to domestic offers

Indian-delivered prices for seaborne petroleum coke have moved marginally downwards over the past one-month period.

The current average price of US-origin pet coke (6.5% sulphur) is assessed at around US$ 95-96 per tonne (t) on CNF India basis, compared with US$ 96-97/t during the same week of last month, thus indicating a nominal decrease of US$ 1/t over the past four-week period.

Offers for Saudi-origin pet coke (9% sulphur) have also decreased to around US$ 92-93/t CNF India, as against the earlier price of around US$ 93-94/t. This indicates a decrease of US$ 1/t in last four weeks.

The USGC FOB price of pet coke (6% sulphur) – widely accepted as reference across international markets – has remained at US$ 61-62/t. Hence, there has been no appreciable change in the FOB USA pet coke price since the corresponding week of the last month.

Average shipping freight rates from USGC to Indian ports for Supramax vessel (50,000-55,000 tons deadweight (DWT)) are currently assessed at US$ 34-35/t.

India’s domestically-produced pet coke prices have instead firmed up over the past few months, following a steady resurgence in end-user demand from cement manufacturing companies.

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), the country’s largest pet coke producer,  has increased price with effect from 1st Nov’20 to INR 8,851/t ex-Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat, over its last month’s price of INR 8,596/t — an increase of INR 255/t.

Nayara Energy (erstwhile Essar Oil) has also increased pet coke price to INR 8,875/t ex- Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, over its last month’s price of INR 8,600/t — an increase of INR -275/t.

Notably, Indian imports of petroleum coke increased 18.3% month-on-month to 834,673 t in October.