Pet coke consumption up 6.4% in April-February 2024
Domestic refineries raise prices for March shipments
India’s petroleum coke consumption rose by 3% to 1.53 million tonnes (mnt) in February 2024 as against 1.49 mnt in the same period of the previous year. However, consumption dropped 9% m-o-m in February compared to 1.68 mnt in January 2024.
The country’s petroleum coke production in February was reported at 1.20 mnt, down 4% from the 1.25 mnt recorded in the same month of the previous year.
In the April- February 2024 period, India’s pet coke consumption reached 17.49 mnt, marking a 6.4% y-o-y increase. Production during this period was assessed at 13.70 mnt, dropped 2 % y-o-y than the 14 mnt in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) governs Petroleum Coke (RPC) imports, restricted to qualified sectors like cement, lime kiln, calcium carbide, and gasification. Annual RPC allocations stand at 1.4 mnt for CPC manufacturing and 0.5 mnt for aluminum industries. FY’24 witnessed a reduced RPC allocation of 1.0 mnt due to pending court cases, with the remaining 0.4 mnt was allocated later. This framework regulates all RPC grades, limiting overall import quantities, with Cement industries being major importers without specific quantity allocations, unlike CPC and Aluminum industries.
Pet coke prices
RIL has marginally raised pet coke prices to INR 13,237/t, up INR 65/t m-o-m. The current month’s price is lower by same month last year’s price by around 25%. RIL releases very limited quantity of pet coke in market as they utilise major portion of it in their gasification unit.
MRPL raised its pet coke prices by INR 210/t for March 2024 shipments. Prices for road supply are at INR 10,410/t and for rail supply are at INR 10,110/t. Additionally, MRPL offers a discount of INR 400/t for quarterly volume commitment of 10,000 t and an additional discount of INR 100/t for 40,000 t annual commitment.
Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) has increased its pet coke prices for road supply for March 2024 by INR 270/t to INR 14,050/t. There is no rake loading facility by CPCL. The average dispatch of pet coke is 40,000-45,000 t per month. It may be noted here that CPCL majorly supplies to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Outlook
Pet coke demand is expected to remain weak majorly due to subdued infrastructure demand. However, the current US Baltimore bridge incident is expected to put some pressure on import prices which may push Indian pet coke production in the near term. Indian consumption of the product is anticipated to remain on the lower side.