India’s metallurgical (met) coke import prices increased moderately over the past week, as buyers continued to hold back on their seaborne purchases amidst ample availability of relatively low-priced domestic material.
CoalMint assessed the blast furnace (BF) grade met coke, with 64% coke strength after reaction (CSR), at $440.00/t CNF India, up by $4/t (0.9%) on a week-on-week basis.
The 62% CSR BF grade met coke price also increased by $4/t (1.0%) w-o-w to $399.00/t CNF India.
Indian domestic met coke prices for the 25-90-mm BF grades are currently ranging between INR 27,000-29,000/t along the country’s east and west coasts respectively.
India’s met coke imports rise 20% m-o-m in Jun’21
India’s met coke imports increased by 20.5% month-on-month to 0.23 mn t in Jun’21, as per latest vessel lineup data compiled by CoalMint.
Latest data further reveals that an aggregate quantity of 101,307 t of Polish and Colombian met coke is expected to reach various Indian ports by 31 Jul’20, including 63,590 t at Hazira (Gujarat), 25,860 t at Paradip (Odisha) and 11,857 t at Vizag (Andhra Pradesh).
China’s met coke demand surges
China’s met coke imports are surging amidst strong demand and domestic undersupply.
In the Chinese domestic met coke market, the near-term outlook for prices appeared to be stabilising. But the squeeze in domestic coking coal supply would have repercussions on the domestic met coke market as well.
The supply tightness observed in the domestic market, coupled with healthy demand from steelmakers, is likely to keep met coke prices strong in the near term.
However, certain mixed views also currently prevail in the Chinese domestic metallurgical coke market segment regarding price outlook on account of various factors such as steel mills’ low inventory of coke and expected reduction in crude steel production.
Meanwhile, major mills in Hebei and Shandong provinces are yet to accept the first round of price uptick proposals.
Outlook
India-bound seaborne met coke prices are likely to stay at elevated levels in view of the supply tightness resulting from China’s absence from the Asian export market.
Indian coke buyers are largely expected to stay out of the seaborne market as domestic prices are comparatively lower than the international prices, which have driven Indian coke exports lately.
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