A sharp rise in pet coke prices over the last few months has resulted in weakened demand. Demand for pet coke remained largely unchanged at 1.4 million tonnes (mnt) in Feb’22, while registering a whopping 77% rise on a y-o-y basis, as reveals CoalMint data.
On a cumulative basis, over Apr-’21-Feb’22, pet coke consumption, however, declined by 11% y-o-y to 12.8 mnt, although it still remains lower than the pre-Covid level of 1.59 mnt in Feb’20.
The hike in pet coke prices, amid increasing supply constraints from major of coal exporting countries, brought a downward shift in trade flows following the Russia-Ukraine war.
Owing to the already elevated raw material prices, procurement demand for both pet coke and thermal coal from cement companies witnessed a decline in the last two months.
Major domestic refineries also increased their prices in the last two months as Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL’s) pet coke prices were at INR 17,972/t for Mar’22, up by INR 3,450/t m-o-m.
Pet coke prices of major domestic refineries
The Directorate-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry allowed the import of pet coke by only select industries such as cement, lime kiln, calcium carbide and gasification.
Further, the annual quota for raw petroleum coke was fixed at 1.4 mnt, for manufacturing calcined petroleum coke and imports at 0.5 mnt, thus limiting the overall import quantity.
Short-term outlook
With escalated global thermal coal prices, pet coke prices are seen firming up in the upcoming week. The ongoing peak season of cement manufacturing, ahead of the monsoon, however, may whet the buying appetite of pet coke.
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