India’s domestically produced metallurgical coke prices have been spiraling upward amidst the steady recovery in demand growth from the domestic steel industry.
Also, the widened spread between spot prices for imported coking coal and domestic met coke selling prices in India had been allowing for significant profit margins generated by the merchant coke producers in recent months.
However, seaborne coking coal prices have been recovering swiftly in September so far, thereby increasing cost of producing met coke, and thus encouraging cokeries to increase offer levels even further.
Latest offers for Australian premium hard coking coal are assessed at around $147.80/t on CNF India basis, with average spot prices having increased by almost $25/t during this month.
Indian domestic met coke prices for the 25-90 mm, blast furnace grade are pegged between INR 23,500/t and INR 24,500/t along the western and eastern coasts respectively.
India reduces dependence on China for met coke imports
India’s imported met coke market dynamics have changed over past one year, as high Chinese prices – incl. anti-dumping duty of $25.20/t – encourage buyers to source their supplies from alternative origins.
In fact, China has presently become a net importer of met coke with several small-scale cokeries having shut operations amid higher domestic coking coal prices and stricter environmental norms.
Most Indian steelmakers concur that Chinese met coke price levels are highly inflated compared with premium hard coking coal prices and driven by the country’s domestic market dynamics rather than by seaborne fundamentals.
Chinese-origin met coke export prices are currently assessed at around $317.00/t and $296.00/t for the 64% CSR and the 62% CSR grades respectively on FOB North China basis.
CoalMint’s latest vessel lineup data reveals that an aggregate shipment volume of 167,543 t of imported met coke is expected to be received in India at Hazira port near Surat in Gujarat by 3 Oct’20.
Notably, all of these inbound met coke consignments are being sourced from different countries, other than China, viz. Poland (117,543 t) and Russia (50,000 t.
Japan and Poland boost met coke exports as Indian buyers diversify sources
India-based trading firms, and major steel-producing end-users like ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel, have started relying on alternative source countries such as Poland, Colombia Japan, Indonesia and Russia for their met coke supplies.
Indian imports of blast furnace (BF) grade met coke mostly originates from Japan, prices thereof currently being around $278-280/t CNF India for November-loading cargoes.
Poland-origin BF coke is mainly consumed by the Chinese end-users, while it is imported in India solely by ArcelorMittal — prices being at around $275/t CNF India.
Both Colombian and Indonesian met coke prices are currently assessed at around $285-290/t on CNF India basis.
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By Aditya Sinha
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