Coal news and updates

Pet coke despatches from Indian refineries improve in Sept

October 13: Despatches of pet coke (fuel grade) from the sidings of major refineries, after suffering a jolt in July due to rakes shortages, has normalised to a great extent in September, according to information available with ICMW.

Despatches from five sidings of four major refineries in September stood at 103 rakes, up significantly from only 79 rakes despatched in July, but lower from 109 despatched in September 2013.

Despatches figures for August are currently not available with ICMW.

There were no despatches from the Bhatinda refinery of HPCL for the third month running starting July as the refinery was in shutdown mode after an incident of fire. Despatches from the refinery are likely to start in September, but are yet to resume.

According to media reports, there are also issues related to insurance claims with HPCL, which was estimated at about Rs 5,000 crore.

Following is the detailed monthly loading of pet coke from various Indian refineries between September 2013 and September 2014 (in number of rakes):

One rake usually carries around 3,550 tons of pet coke.

Beside rakes, despatches from domestic refineries also take place by trucks. For example, despatches from IOCL’s Koyali refinery generally takes place by trucks to consumers in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan though it had introduced rake loading in November 2013.

Also, despatches by trucks take place from other refineries, including RIL’s DTA, but that figure is not available with ICMW.

Of the total 60 rakes despatched from RIL’s SEZ siding in September, 24 rakes went to Shree Cement, 7 to J K Lakshmi Cement, 12 to UltraTech Cement, 4 to Birla Corporation, 3 each to Tata Chemical and Saurashtra Cement, 2 rakes to Hindustan Electrographite and 1 rake each to Khanna Paper, Ambuja Cement, Binani Cement, J K Cement (Nimhara) and Wonder Cement.

In July a total of only 51 rakes were despatched from RIL’s SEZ siding of which 20 rakes went to Shree Cement, 9 to J K Lakshmi Cement, 4 each to UltraTech and Saurashtra Cement, 3 each to Tata Chemical and Birla Corporation and 1 rake each to Lafarge Cement, Hindustan Electro Graphite and Bhiwani Textiles.

The despatches from RIL’s DTA siding in September stood at 6 rakes, up from 3 in July.
In September, of the total 6 rakes, UltraTech had received 5 and 1 went to J K Cement (Nimhara).

In July, UltraTech had received 2 rakes from RIL’s DTA siding while 1 rake had gone to Holcim (ACC).

Despatches from Essar Oil’s Vadinar refinery in September rose to 28 rakes from only 18 in July.

In September, Holcim had received 8 rakes from Essar, UltraTech, Lafarge, J K Cement (Nimhara) and Mangalam Cement had received 3 rakes each along with some brick kilns in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) whereas Heidelberg Cement and Prism Cement had received 2 rakes each.

In July, of the 18 rakes despatched from Essar’s siding, 4 went to Ambuja Cement, 3 each to Prism Cement and Mangalam Cement, 2 each to J K Cement (Nimhara), UtraTech and Heidelberg Cement, and 1 each to Tata Chemical and Jaiprakash Group.
Bharat Oman Refinery Ltd (BORL), a joint venture of BPCL and Oman Refinery, had despatched a total of 8 rakes in September compared to 6 in July.

Of the 8 despatched from Bina siding of BORL in September, 1 each had gone to J P (Rewa), J P (Dalla), Heidelberg Cement, Birla Corporation, Century Cement, ACC (Laseri), Maihar Cement and Sriram Fertilizer.

In July, of the 6 rakes despatched from the Bina siding of BORL, 2 had gone to Birla Corporation and 1 each to Prism Cement, Heidelberg Cement and a small trader.

Only 1 rake of pet coke was despatched from Indian Oil Corporation Ltd’s Koyali (Baroda) siding in September, which went to Wonder Cement.

In July, despatches from Koyali stood at 2 rakes and 1 each went to Prism Cement and Holcim (ACC).

There were no production and despatches of pet coke from HPCL-LN Mittal JV’s Bhatinda refinery in September. The despatches from the refinery were stopped from July after a major fire.