Petcoke prices have exhibited a reversal of declining trend, witnessed during the last few months.
Of late, import offers from key international markets have started moving upwards, impacting prices in India.
Reputed importers have revealed to SteelMint that import offers have gone up lately. According to them, offers of Petcoke (with around 9% Sulphur content) from Saudi Arabia have gone up to around USD 41/MT, CFR India. While, that for US-origin materials (with around 6.5% Sulphur content) have moved up to around USD 45/MT, CFR India.
Rise in offers was attributed to increase in crude oil prices. Oil prices have been rising since the last week of Feb’16 due to sentiments arising from the prospect of big oil producers may cut production. On 9 Mar’16, crude oil prices were reported at USD 35.05/barrel, which is remarkably higher than price reported on 25 Mar’16 at USD 29.19/barrel.
Besides, shortage in international markets also was being attributed for uptick in offers.
In last price revision on 1 Mar’16, Reliance Industries, the largest producer in the country, had revised its ex-work prices to INR 4,000/MT, a hike of INR 200/MT over the previous rate. Essar, the country’s second largest producer, also raised its ex-work prices by the same amount to INR 3,990/MT.
Domestic prices were also raised on account of shortage caused by strong demand prevailed due to prevalence of low prices.
Influx of import continued to prevail. In Feb’16, a record quantity of 1,028,950 MT was imported into the country, according to data compiled by SteelMint Research. Saudi Arabia and USA were the prominent import regions, SteelMint Research further shows.
The top importers were Shree Cement, Ultratech Cement, Ambuja Cement, JSW Steel and Ramco Cement.
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