Pet Coke: Average price variation with RIL increases in Apr’21

Petroleum coke price of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is generally referred by most of the suppliers for comparative purpose. It is also considered as a benchmark by major cement manufacturers, who are the major consumers of pet coke. The main reason for this is the fact that RIL is by far the largest producer of pet coke having almost 50% share of production within the country.

However, after commissioning of Gasification unit by RIL they have started consuming Pet coke themselves. The consumption has gradually increased as the more and more units of gasification have stabilized. In fact, they have also imported Pet coke this year for use in their gasification unit, which is permitted by Hon’ble Supreme Court. Currently, only a small portion of their production of pet coke is being sold to the domestic customers. This has resulted huge reduction in their market share in the domestic market. Consequently, IOCL has become the largest seller of Pet coke although they produce almost half of pet coke as compared to RIL.

Pet coke prices are based on imported pet coke cfr price along with factoring of the logistics cost involved and demand supply at different refineries. The local marketing conditions are also having major components for refineries.

The prices of pet coke of various major refineries have been compared with pet coke price of RIL graphically as below for the period Apr’20 to Nov’20. The RIL price has been taken as reference as zero and variations have been shown accordingly. The prices shown are all ‘General prices’ applicable at respective refineries. The specific pricing by various companies is not covered. Besides this, Oil companies may also have different discount structures which might vary during different period depending upon the marketing conditions.

At the beginning of FY 2121, most of the pet coke producers have increased prices in Apr’21, which has made a new high. The prices of pet coke of various refineries have been compared with pet coke price of RIL and represented graphically for the period Apr’21 compared with Mar’21.

The RIL price has been taken as reference and variations have been shown accordingly. The prices shown are all ‘general prices’ applicable at respective refineries. The specific pricing and other commercial offers are not represented.

Further, as Nayara Energy’s price is almost same as RIL, it is not shown here separately.

On an average BPC Bina price is highest as compared to RIL followed by IOCL Panipat. Similarly, BPC Kochi is the lowest as compared to RIL, followed by MRPL Mangalore.

However, in the current month, the highest price is at Panipat which is higher by INR 1,197/t and lowest price is at BPCL Kochi which is lower by INR 1,964/t as compared to RIL.

The summary of price variations with RIL for the period Apr’21 &Mar’21 is enumerated as follows:

Notably the variation, as compared with RIL, is highest at Kochi INR (-) 751/t followed by MRPL INR (-) 396/t.