The Petcoke market in India is sustaining robust demand as supplies from international markets are low and the user-industries are consuming the fuel uninterruptedly.
Due to the devastation caused by the Harvey hurricane, which had occurred at Texas in the US on 25 Aug’17, Petcoke supplies from USA are suspended. Indian importers who had booked the fuel thus have to turn towards the home market for their Petcoke purchases.
In the US, the turmoil among the refineries continues to persist aftermath the hurricane incident. Some of the incidents reported are:
>> Motiva Refinery has shut-down its refining operations at Port Arthur in Texas due to the flooding after the hurricane. The refinery, a joint venture between Shell Oil Company and Saudi Aramco, is the largest of its kind in the US.
>> One of the oil storage tanks of Valero, one of the largest refineries in USA, was submerged in flood water.
>> Exxon Mobil has shut-down two of its refineries as one of the Sulphur Di-Oxide control systems was damaged in the flooding.
To capitalize upon the strong demand conditions in India, and the supplies from USA going dry, refineries in Saudi Arabia have raised their Petcoke offers to around that from the US.
The latest offers for Petcoke (9% Sulphur) from Saudi Arabia have gone up to around USD 95/MT CFR India; while the recent offers for Petcoke (6.5% Sulphur) from USA have hovered at around USD 98/MT CFR India. However, there is no availability of the material for immediate loading from USA.
In India, Petcoke purchases are strong as the user-industries are running at high rates. Traders, spoken to be CoalMint, said that all buyers from all segments of user-industries procured the material fervently, and the demand will remain strong in the near term.
On the pricing front, there was no change in the ex-works prices of the refineries in India on a week-on-week basis.
Reliance Industries Limited, the largest producer in India, has quoted its ex-works price at INR 7,150/MT; while, Essar, the second largest producer, has quoted its ex-works price at INR 7,155/MT. And, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) has quoted its ex-works price at INR 6,190/MT.
Meanwhile, MRPL has not yet resumed operations of its refinery, which is under maintenance shut-down.
Source: CoalMint Research
IMPORTS
Petcoke imports in India have shrunk remarkably due to the supply disruption in the US. During the 1-13 Sep’17 period, only 110, 303 MT of Petcoke was imported in India, data compiled by CoalMint Research shows.
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