India: Nayara Energy lifts petcoke prices for early May’26

• Domestic supply tightens during maintenance, driving price hike
• Rising global prices, higher cement production lend support

Nayara Energy Ltd (NEL, erstwhile Essar Oil Ltd) has raised its petcoke prices, effective 01 May 2026, to INR 21,000/t. Notably, last month, Nayara’s price was revised on 1 April to INR 18,670/t and again on 16 April to INR 19,670/t. The increase in May over last month’s price on 1 April is INR 2,330/t, considering both revisions of April. The increase is mainly due to the US-Iran conflict in recent weeks, which has tightened supply and raised freight costs in the last few weeks.

Factors resulting in hike in prices

Production constraints: Nayara has undertaken a scheduled shutdown for 5-6 weeks last month, leading to a complete halt on petcoke production. Thus, domestic petcoke availability will remain restricted in 2-3 weeks this month as well, which is likely to have pushed prices higher.

Imported pet coke prices rise m-o-m: Imported petcoke prices also increased sharply in early April compared with March. The monthly average of US-origin petcoke offers rose to around $165/t CFR India in April from about $158/t in March, driven by higher freight costs and supply disruptions linked to Middle East tensions.

However, the rise in landed costs discouraged buyers to a certain extent, with most consumers adopting a cautious approach and relying on domestic supply or alternative fuels, following which prices started declining towards the month-end.

Pet coke imports to India recover slightly: India’s petcoke imports stood at 0.7 million tonnes (mnt) in March 2026 against 0.6 mnt in February. However, volumes were lower than the monthly average import volumes of 1.3 mnt seen in CY’25.

India’s petcoke output falls y-o-y in Mar’26: Indian petcoke production and consumption declined y-o-y in March 2026, though there was a slight m-o-m improvement. Production stood at 1.28 mnt, down 10% y-o-y but up 5% m-o-m due to higher operational days. Cumulatively, in FY’26, output reached 14.77 mnt, down 1.3% y-o-y.

Petcoke output is driven by refinery product mix rather than direct demand, as it is a by-product of delayed coking units. Higher m-o-m production in March was mainly due to more days compared to February. However, the y-o-y decline reflects refinery focus on higher-value fuels such as diesel and petrol.

India’s cement output rises m-o-m: Cement production reached 48.4 mnt in March 2026, growing by 4% y-o-y, while total production for Q1CY’26 stood at 139.7 mnt, reflecting a stronger 8% y-o-y increase. Cement is a major consumer of coal, both domestic and imported.

The 8% growth in cement output indicates that industrial coal demand remains resilient even as the power sector’s coal imports decline. Cement producers typically blend petcoke and coal for kiln operations.