Seaborne metallurgical coke prices, delivered to India from multiple originating countries, continue to climb higher surpassing multi-year highs as the global supply shortage of met coke has shown no signs of easing.
CoalMint currently assesses the spot price for the 64% CSR grade Japanese blast furnace (BF) grade met coke at $361.00/t CNF India, up $4/t w-o-w.
The 62% CSR grade BF met coke is currently assessed at $352.00/t CNF India — also up by $4/t w-o-w.
Globally, met coke prices have constantly rallied on the back of supply tightness arising from a combination of huge demand growth for coke in the Chinese steel industry amidst a severe shortage of Chinese coke supply following widespread production curbs.
Chinese domestic coke prices have soared with China’s informal ban on Australian coal imports that caused end-users to opt for imported material, leading to a steady upward movement of global coke prices since early-August.
Chinese buyers have thus become importers of met coke, competing with India for supplies from Poland, Japan, and Colombia.
It is pertinent to note that these three countries are the largest met coke suppliers to India so far this year. India’s imports of Polish met coke were 901,169 t this year till November, with imports from Colombia at 449,440 t and Japan at 399,029 t.
It is also being lately heard that several Chinese buyers have booked met coke cargoes from Indian suppliers with late-January and February laycan.
Meanwhile, sustained high prices for imported met coke have pushed Indian end-users towards increasing their domestic procurement from local suppliers.
This is clearly evident from the decreased volumes of met coke imported in India last month. India imported 352,046 t of met coke in November — down by over 6% m-o-m, as compared against 375,503 t imported during the previous month of October.
Presently there are expectations that Asian seaborne met coke prices may continue to see more upward movements in end-December and January period.
India Coal Import Vessel Lineup
CoalMint’s latest vessel lineup data (as on 21 Dec’20) reveals that an aggregate shipment volume of 190,240 t of imported met coke is expected to arrive at different Indian ports by 30 Dec’20 —
– 40,951 t at Gopalpur (Odisha)
– 126,789 t at Hazira (Gujarat)
– 22,500 t at Vizag (Andhra Pradesh)
These inbound met coke consignments have been sourced from two different originating countries, viz. Colombia (63,451 t) and Poland (126,789 t).
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By Aditya Sinha
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