India: Met coke imports decrease in retaliation against sky-high offer prices

Offer prices for seaborne metallurgical coke, delivered to India from multiple originating countries, have skyrocketed in recent months amid continued concerns on limited availability of spot tonnages across Asian markets.

CoalMint currently assesses the spot blast furnace met coke price for the 64% CSR grade at $349/t CNF India, up $12/t w-o-w.

The 62% CSR grade BF metcoke is currently assessed at $340/t CNF India — also up by $12/t w-o-w.

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.

Earlier however, Indian met coke imports had increased for four consecutive months until October as there has been considerable recovery in demand from domestic steelmakers notwithstanding the moderate demand scenario.

High coke prices propped up by tight supply in China

Globally, met coke prices have constantly rallied on the back of persistent supply tightness arising from production cuts and replacement in China’s Shanxi, Hebei and Shandong provinces.

China’s domestic coke prices saw an invincible bull run with eight recent rounds of uptick from producers, while the country’s end-user demand for coke surged amid a healthy downstream steel demand.

The resultant squeeze in Chinese domestic coke supply caused end-users to opt for imported material, leading to a steady upward movement of global coke prices since early-August.

Industry experts predict the supply tightness to last until at least the next quarter, as supported levels of steel production are expected to continue boosting coke demand and prices thereof.

India Coal Import Vessel Lineup

CoalMint’s latest vessel lineup data (as on 7 Dec’20) reveals that an aggregate shipment volume of 135,709 t of imported met coke has arrived at different Indian ports since 27 Nov’20 —

– 62,993 t at Haldia (West Bengal)

– 13,345 t at Paradip (Odisha)

– 59,371 t at Vizag (Andhra Pradesh)

These inbound met coke consignments have been sourced from different originating countries, viz. Colombia (97,737), Poland (17,972 t) and South Africa (20,000 t).

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By Aditya Sinha