Domestically manufactured Indian blast furnace (BF) grade met coke prices have remained stable for the last couple of weeks owing to stable demand despite rising coking coal prices and steady supply.
Prices for the 25-90 mm BF-grade material was assessed at INR 49,000-50,000/tonne (t) along the country’s western and eastern coasts respectively, remaining firm in the current week too.
Domestic met coke prices should have increased with the rising coking coal prices, but did not because met coke manufacturers are still operating on coking coal shipments booked months earlier.
Presently, prices of Australian-origin premium HCC coking coal imported by India are $426.65/t. However, a month back, these were volatile, hovering at around $300-$350/t.
Domestic steel market
The steel players in India are actively restocking anticipating a rise in steel prices as a result of increase in coking coal and met coke prices. This activity has increased the potential demand in the trade channel.
The end-users, however, are operating on partial demand and previous inventory. It is also expected that automobile, construction and infrastructure sectors, along with fabrication and heavy engineering, will see increase in demand.
There is demand for steel only for projects that are at near-completion stage.
Evidently, it can be said steel prices, demand or supply are at a stage where these are not impacting met coke prices.
Lucrative export market
The export market for India is lucrative with the absence of China, coupled with rising met coke prices. Shipments are believed to be on an uptrend.
Export shipments from India displayed a promising trend. As assessed by CoalMint, as on 13 Oct’21, 0.72 million tonnes (mnt) of met coke is expected to be shipped while a quantity of 0.32mn t is at an anchorage ready state. A major chunk of 0.49 mn t is to be shipped from Dhamra port by a leading eastern India-based merchant met coke producer.
Upcoming tenders
Indian met coke traders mills are more focused on procuring met coke domestically rather than relying on imports. This is mainly due to rising met coke prices. Simultaneously, Indian met coke makers are being able to manufacture efficiently so much so that they have been catering both to domestic needs and export market.
In line with this shift, MMTC has invited bids for auctioning of 13,000 t of low ash metallurgical (LAM) and nut coke from Odisha, due date for which is 25 Oct’21.
Outlook
Domestic met coke prices are expected to escalate in a few weeks on the back of rising global coking coal costs.
Simultaneously, merchant met coke players will keep their focus on the export market since China is still away from the export market, which is turning out to be profitable for India.
It is also believed met coke procurement would mostly be domestic, since Indian manufacturers are consistent with the BF grade.
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