Indian Met Coke Producers Raise Ex-Works Prices Responding to Surging Coking Coal Import Offers

Met coke prices have drifted upwards in India, pushed by the rising Coking coal prices.

Indian Met coke producers have hiked their ex-works prices in response to the soaring Coking coal prices, and escalating Met coke import offers.

Domestic ex-works prices of the Blast Furnace grade have risen to: INR 15,000/MT (east coast) and INR 17,000-17,500/MT (west coast).

Prices in INR/MT

Market participants apprehend further increments in the domestic prices in view of the upswings in Coking coal prices and strengthening demand.

Clearly, import offers have risen due to the surging Coking coal prices. Also, at the same time, a spate of supply constraints in China has compounded to the upswings in Met coke prices.

In China, Met coke producers have curtailed their productions due to prolonged financial losses, leading to a tight supply situation, amid strong demand emanating from the steel mills running at high operating rates.

As a case in point, Tangshan Jiahua Coal Chemicals, a major Met coke producer in China with 3.3 MnT of production capacity, has idled two of its six coke ovens due to liquidity crunch.

With Chinese steel mills running at high operating rates, demand for Met coke is on a substantial rise, and with supply becoming tight and Coking coal prices moving upwards, export offers of Met coke from China are constrained to traverse upwards.

The latest export offers of the 64% CSR Met coke were assessed considerably higher at around USD 188/MT FoB China; and that of the 62% CSR Met coke were also assessed significantly up at around USD 186/MT Fob China.

For Indian buyers, these offers translate into: USD 197/MT and USD 195/MT respectively on CFR India basis.

In India, demand for Met coke has begun to strengthen, that will aid in the rising prices. Given, the domestic and international scenarios, prices of Met coke are expected to go up further.

IMPORTS

During Aug’16, 0.52 MnT of Met coke was imported into India, according to the data compiled by SteelMint Research. In the same month of the last fiscal, a lower volume of 0.33 MnT was imported into the country, SteelMint data shows.