India’s imported metallurgical coke prices have continued to increase further for all origins, with buyers being more cautious amid concerns on limited availability of spot tonnages across Asian markets.
CoalMint currently assesses the spot blast furnace met coke price for Japanese origin 64% CSR grade at $323/t CNF India, up 1.6% from 17th Nov. The Japanese 62% CSR grade BF met coke is currently assessed at $ 314.00/t CNF India – unchanged from 17th Nov.
The overall seaborne spot met coke supply remains limited as a result of increased import demand from China, wherein stronger steel prices have kept buying interest firm for met coke.
In China, continued supply tightness caused by production capacity cut and replacement supported domestic coke prices to surge drastically. Chinese domestic met coke prices have also surged on record steel output.
Chinese buyers have thus become importers of met coke, competing with India for supplies from Poland, Japan, and Colombia.
These three countries are the largest met coke suppliers to India so far this year. India’s imports of Polish met coke were 208,372 t last month, with imports from Japan at 77,000 t, and Colombia at 32,490 t.
More importantly, Indian met coke imports have increased for the fourth consecutive month in October. India imported 375,503 t of met coke in October — up by over 44% m-o-m as against 260,665 t imported during the previous month of September.
Indian domestic met coke prices boosted by stronger demand and higher import pricing
In India, tight supply of coke kept domestic coke prices firm, but many end-users were reluctant to purchase imported coke due to higher than expected prices.
India’s domestically produced met coke prices are relatively stable from past few weeks, supported by stable demand from the domestic steelmakers. Indian domestic met coke prices of the 25-90 mm, blast furnace grade are currently hovering at around INR 23,000/t (east coast) and INR 23,500/t (west coast).
India Coal Import Vessel Lineup
CoalMint’s latest vessel lineup data (as on 23 Nov’20) reveals that an aggregate shipment volume of 220,339 t of imported met coke is expected to arrive at different Indian ports this month —
– 45,050 t at Haldia
– 70,000 t at Hazira
– 18,000 t at Krishnapatnam
– 16,500 t at Mangalore
– 29,000 t at Pipavav
– 41,789 t at Vizag.
These inbound met coke consignments have been sourced from different originating countries, viz. Australia (18,000), Colombia (56,421), Indonesia (26,918 t), Poland (99,000 t) and South Africa (20,000 t).
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By Aditya Sinha
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