Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) has increased petroleum coke price with effect from 1st Aug’20 to INR 7,268/t ex-Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat, over its last month’s price of INR 6,750/t — an increase of INR 518/t.
Nayara Energy (erstwhile Essar Oil) has increased pet coke price to INR 7,275/t ex- Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, over its last month’s price of INR 6,755/t — an increase of INR 520/t.
Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) has increased pet coke price for road supplies by to INR 6,890/t, from INR 6,490/t of last month — an increase of INR 400/t.
MRPL has also increased its pet coke price for supply by rake/barge to INR 6,590/t from INR 6,190/t of last month — an increase of INR 400/t.
Price Commentaries
RIL’s current price increase follows a sharp hike of INR 1,050/t in the last month of July. Earlier in May this year, however, RIL had substantially decreased its price by INR 1,223/t followed by a moderate reduction of INR 195/t in June.
The price of Nayara Energy continues to be in tune with RIL price and remains within a variation of INR 10/t with respect to RIL.
MRPL has maintained its typical price difference of INR 300/MT between its road supplies and rail supplies, which is the approximate expenditure incurred by a customer for transporting the purchased material to rake loading area from the company’s pet coke-producing refinery in Mangaluru, Karnataka.
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOC), the country’s second-largest pet coke producer, is yet to revise pet coke prices from its various refineries.
Current Market Scenario
India’s domestic demand for pet coke has increased gradually after certain relaxations have been provided during the recent months as part of the graded lifting of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
With the steady resumption of infrastructural activities, the demand for cement has gone up, in turn driving the demand for pet coke, which is mostly used in cement kilns. Several major cement plants have already increased their production levels to over 50-60% and are further ramping up outputs in line with the further easing of governmental curbs under “Unlock 3.0”.
Even as cement manufacturers are actively scaling up production operations and thus limping back to normalcy, it would take some more time for pet coke demand to return to the ‘pre-Covid’ levels. This, however, clearly depends on flattening the Covid-19 infection curve in India.
By Aditya Sinha
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