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Adequate supplies sustain soft trend in pet coke

A bearish tone is prevailing in the pet coke market on sufficient availability and not much increase in demand from end-users, industry sources said.

“At present there are a large number of suppliers whereas demand has increased only a little bit,” said an official with a trading company said.

There are not many deals taking place for imported pet coke despite the soft prices as domestic refiners have kept their prices almost at par with the imported material.

“We have not heard of any deals for US Gulf Coast cargo as well as Saudi Arabian cargo,” the official said.

The current price of US Gulf coast pet coke is $43-43 per ton CFR India, while that of Saudi Arabian pet coke is $37-38 per ton CFR India.

In comparison, the price of domestic pet coke has been kept equivalent to around $31 per ton for bulk consumers.

Pet coke is largely consumed in India by a few select cement-makers and other manufacturers like lime kilns in their boilers.

“The demand for cement in the country is not exactly buoyant and thus there is hardly any increase in demand for pet coke from this industry,” the official said.

Indian consumers had been using imported pet coke for quite some time and a soft trend in the imported material had prompted domestic refiners to drastically cut prices during the past three months to retain their customers.