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Pet coke prices likely to remain stable: Trader

India coal Market Watch

December 02: After a drastic decline during the past two months, both in domestic and international markets, the prices of pet coke are likely to remain stable or firm up a bit in coming months, a section of traders in India believe.

 But the views expressed by traders are being taken with a pinch of salt by consumers who are of the view that there is further scope for decline in prices in view of low demand from China, ample availability and the soft trend in crude oil and non-coking coal prices.

 According to the traders, there is not much inventory available with domestic refiners like Reliance Industries and Essar and even in international markets, the inventory level is almost back to normal and this indicates that worse is over and pet coke prices will remain stable.

 Another point of optimism, according to them is the general trend in winter season (December-March) when cement production and demand peaks as construction activity picks up during this period.

 “There is already slight revival in prices of imported pet coke and the trend is likely to continue as January-February is considered to be a good time as far as demand is concerned,” said one trader.

 “The prices may move in a limited range in December, but may firm up slightly in January-February 2016,” he said.

 Another source claimed pointed that while prices of Saudi Arabian pet coke has improved by around $2.00-4.00 per ton from a low of about $36-38 per ton towards end of November to around $40-42 per ton, the price of US Gulf Coast pet coke has improved to $48-50 per ton from a low of around $44-45 per ton in the middle of November.

 A third source said the current inventory level of Reliance is in the range of 150,000 to 170,000 tons, while that with Essar is around 30,000-50,000. This could be another reason why prices are expected to remain stable, he said.

 Meanwhile, a few traders who had brought US Gulf Coast pet coke in September-October at a high price of around $60 per ton CFR India are still finding it difficult to sell their material in view of drastic fall in domestic pet coke prices in the intervening period and are awaiting for a revival in prices.