Anode grade coke prices, after cooling for a few weeks in Dec’21, firmed up in Jan’22 as the Chinese government emphasized on reducing its production to improve air quality during the Winter Olympics being held in the country. Chinese anode coke with 2% sulphur rose over $550/tonnes (t) last month.
Anode grade coke is mainly used in manufacturing calcined pet coke (CPC), a raw material for the aluminum industry.
With prices rising, a cargo from Argentina-based energy major, YPF Argentina, with 5% sulphur, was sold to India at $540-550/t, CFR basis.
One of India’s leading calcined pet coke producers, Goa Carbon, recently finalised a high-sulphur anode coke deal from Malaysia with around 5% sulphur at $265/t on FOB basis for a quantity of 11,000 t.
A 20,000 t consignment of low sulphur coke from Dumai Refinery in Indonesia was also heard to have been booked to China at $520-525/t.
On the domestic front, there was no price revision of anode grade coke by IOCL in Dec’21 and Jan’22 for its refineries across the country. The last price change was on 27 Nov’21 which is continuing till date. Market participants are awaiting a revision as the current prices are high.
Calcined pet coke offers surge
Notably, tighter availability continued to keep Chinese calcined petroleum coke (CPC) prices high as the present offers have been assessed in the range of $750-800/t, FOB.
Vedanta received a 23,000-tonne Chinese cargo with 3.5% suphur at Gangavaram Port in Jan’22 at $640-650/t on CFR basis. Another cargo with 3.5% sulphur arrived in India at an even higher price of $700-720/t FOB.
The global aluminum industry faced a major reduction in smelting capacity in Europe last year, besides production cuts due to high power costs. This spiked aluminum prices to all-time highs of $3,225/t on the London Metal Exchange (LME).
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