Shortage of Petcoke has prevailed in the Indian market due to prolonged active purchases and irregular domestic supply.
Market Trend
Indian producers have kept their ex-work prices unchanged since the last revisions on 1Apr’16. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the largest producer in the country, had hiked its ex-work price by INR 150/MT to INR 4,150/MT. While, Essar, the second largest producer also had hiked its ex-work price by the same amount to INR 4,140/MT.
In the meantime, supply disruption has lowered availability in the key overseas markets, resulting in import offers going up.
According to a reputed importer, offers of Petcoke (6.5% Sulphur) from USA have gone up to USD 51-52/MT CFR India. Offers of the material (9% Sulphur) from Saudi Arabia are at 45-46/MT CFR India, according to the importer. These offers pertain to the current import booking for delivery in May’16.
Communication with market participants has revealed that import offers are likely to go up further due to the tightness in supply in the significant overseas markets.
Likewise, supply from Indian refineries also has gone tight, resulting in prevalence of shortage in the domestic market.
The supply shortages apparently hint at the likelihood of Indian producers hiking their ex-work prices in the imminent price revisions.
RIL will shut-down one of its Crude Distillation Units of its refinery at the Special Economic Zone, in Jamnagar of Gujarat, for a period of three weeks, starting 1May’16, for conducting routine maintenance and inspection activities.
Import Scenario
Imports continued to enter into the country. During Apr’16, 8,19,080 MT of Petcoke was imported into the country(upto the 25th of the month), according to SteelMint Research.
Leave a Reply