The Petcoke market in India has loosen steam as all buyers halted their purchases and were waiting for the Government of India to declare its stand on Petcoke usage in India.
A speculation has been doing the rounds that the government court is considering banning usage of the refinery-derived fuel totally in all parts of the country. But, there has been no input on whether the main consuming sector—the cement industry—will be spared. The decision is expected to be announced on 9 May’18.
The refinery-derived fuel, considered superior to coal on account of the intrinsic calorific value being higher than that for coal, has been subjected to strong demand due to several user industries using it as the main fuel.
According to the latest data gathered by CoalMint Research, Petcoke production in Mar’18 was up by around 1.82% against the production in the preceding month. In the last month of the bygone fiscal, Petcoke production in the country was at around 1.12 MnT over the production of around 1.10 MnT in Feb’18.
Source: CoalMint Research
During FY18, demand for Petcoke in the country was at around 23.85 MnT; with the production at around 13.86 MnT and imports at around 9.99 MnT. The consumption during the fiscal was almost at the same volume as that in the previous fiscal. During FY17, around 23.78 MnT of Petcoke was consumed in India.
On the pricing front, there was neither any change in the international offers nor in the domestic prices in India. Buyers have now stopped booking imports in view of the uncertainty looming over the Petcoke usage in the future due to the possible all India Petcoke ban by the government.
The latest offers for Petcoke (6.5% Sulphur) from USA were assessed at around USD 113/MT CFR India; and the recent offers for Petcoke (9% Sulphur) from Saudi Arabia were assessed at around USD 110/MT CFR India. Both the offers remained un-deviated on week-on-week basis.
Source: CoalMint Research
Indian refineries are likely to lift their ex-works prices with the onset of May’18 as the international offers are high.
Source: CoalMint Research
The prevailing domestic Petcoke prices in India are: INR 8,950/MT(Reliance Industries Limited), INR 8,935/MT (Essar) and INR 7,860/MT (Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited).
Imports of Petcoke in India has remained lackluster; and that was due to the supply tightness prevailed in the key international markets. According to the data compiled by CoalMint Research, only 488,350 MT of Petcoke was imported in India during the 1-28Apr’18 period.
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