Indian demand for petroleum coke declined 0.7% to 2.2 million metric tons (MMT) in Apr’18 as compared to the corresponding month a year ago. Strikingly enough, the nation’s total oil demand expanded 4.45% to 17.66 MMT in the same month from the year ago period, according to the oil ministry’s statistical arm, Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC).
Notably, India is one of the fastest-growing markets globally for petroleum products — the country’s overall fuel demand grew at a robust 5.3% to approximately 205 MMT for the full financial year 2017-2018, as compared to 195 MMT in the previous financial year of 2016-2017.
On a yearly basis, pet coke consumption rose 9% last fiscal to 26 MMT. However, the consumption growth registered in 2017-2018 is much lower than the double-digit growth recorded in the last seven years.
Simultaneously, the import offers for the petroleum-derived ‘polluting’ fuel have also fallen in this week. The latest offers for pet coke (6.5% sulfur) from USA are assessed at around USD 108/MT CFR, while offers for pet coke (9% sulfur) from Saudi Arabia are assessed at around USD 105/MT CFR; both these offers have dropped by about USD 5/MT over the preceding weekly assessments.
The Indian refineries, however, did not revise their ex-works prices during the past week. The prevailing domestic pet coke prices stay at INR 9,050/MT (Reliance Industries Ltd.), INR 9,040/MT (Essar) and INR 8,230/MT (Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.).
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