Indian Petcoke Prices Stable Amid Strong Demand, High Import Offers

Strong demand, stable domestic prices and high import offers have dominated in the Indian Petcoke market, unleashing a bullish market outlook.

Import offers have remained at highs, without any sign of imminent downward correction. The latest import offer of Petcoke (6.5% Sulphur) from USA is assessed at around USD 101/MT CFR India; and that of the material (9% Sulphur) from Saudi Arabia at USD 90/MT CFR India.

Indian importers have strongly resisted the high import offers. Most of them were not ready to pay more than USD 86/MT on CFR India basis.

Supply from Saudi Arabia is likely to shrink further as Yashref, a major refiner in the region, has planned for maintenance shut-down of its 400,000 barrels per day refinery in the Yanbu Industrial City from the terminal days of Nov’16 to the Dec’16 end. The refinery processes low cost Arabian crude oil, and produces Petcoke, among other by-products, for export.

Indian producers have retained their ex-works prices as revised on 1Nov’16, when, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the largest producer in the country, had decreased its ex-works price by INR 200/MT to INR 6,350/MT. Essar, the country’s second largest producer ,also had reduced its ex-works price by the same amount to INR 6,340/MT.

Source: Market Participants 

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) also had revised downwards its ex-works price by INR 251/MT to INR 5,913/MT for customers outside the Karnataka state. MRPL has also lowered its ex-works price by INR 101/MT to INR 5,988/MT for buyers within the state.

PRODUCTION

During Oct’16, 1,119 ‘000MT of Petcoke was produced in India by the domestic producers. The quantity was around 4.4% higher than the production in Sep’16, at 1,071 ‘000 MT, and also, the highest in the first 7 months of FY17.

Source: Industry 

The high production was due to the domestic producers’ effort to meet the growing demand for domestic Petcoke due to shortage in international markets.

During the Apr-Oct’16 period, 7,365 ‘000MT of Petcoke was produced in India.

IMPORTS

During the 1-18 Nov’16 period, the Petcoke import into India was at 779,700 MT, according to data collected by CoalMint Research.