Coal news and updates

RIL cuts pet coke prices by Rs 100/ton for June loading

June 5: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India’s largest petroleum coke producer, has reduced by Rs 100 per ton the ex-refinery price of fuel grade petroleum coke for bulk buyers for loading in June 2014, an industry source said.

The ex-refinery price for bulk buyers for loading in June will now be Rs 6,650 per ton as compared to Rs 6,750 per ton in May.

The cut in price was basically prompted by the appreciation in the Indian rupee in recent days that has made imports cheaper, sources said.

“Not only the price of imported pet coke has fallen to $101 per ton CFR India from $105 per ton around three months back, the Indian currency too has depreciated to around Rs 59 to one US dollar from a high of around Rs 65 to one US dollar back then,” the source said.

“As the cost of using imported pet coke came down, the domestic refiners opted to reduce their prices to retain customers,” an official with a cement company told ICMW.

Earlier, in April, RIL had increased the price by Rs 100 per to Rs 6,750 per ton.

RIL had rolled over the price in March 2014 after increasing the same by Rs 150 per ton to Rs 6,650 per ton for February loading.

Prior to February 2014, RIL had last increased the price by Rs 200 per ton in November 2013 to Rs 6,500 per ton. The company had increased the price by Rs 300 per ton to Rs 6,300 per ton in September 2013 to keep parity with the imported price which had increased in view of the sharp depreciation in the Indian currency.

This means, the company has increased the price of pet coke by Rs 850 per ton from a low of Rs 5,900 per ton prevailing in June 2013 to Rs 6,750 per ton in April 2014. Compared to Rs 5,700 per ton in February 2013, the price in May 2014 is up by Rs 1,050 per ton.

Overall demand for pet coke in the country has increased a bit compared to a year back even as there was not much increase in demand from cement-makers in May 2014 due to the general elections in the country which had reduced supplies to the infrastructure sector. Incidentally, the cement sector is the biggest consumer of pet coke in India.

Though information from other refiners like Essar, HPCL and BORL who generally follow RIL in fixing their pet coke price is not available at present, they are also likely to follow the leader so far as fixing the June 2014 loading prices are concerned, sources feel.