Coal news and updates

RIL cuts pet coke prices to Rs 3300/t for Jan loading

After having initially decided to roll over prices for December delivery, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) was forced to cut the basic price of pet coke by Rs 200 per ton for both retail and bulk customers to match imported prices. Now, the company has once again decided to cut prices for January loading by a similar margin and for similar reasons, industry sources informed ICMW.

The company had initially decided to keep the prices unchanged at Rs 3,700 per ton in December but, after a few days, it had reduced prices by Rs 200 per ton to Rs 3,500 per ton.

The company, which fixes its prices on a monthly basis, has again gone in for a reduction by Rs 200 per ton to Rs 3,300 per ton for loading in January 2016 for retail customers while the basic price for bulk customers has been fixed at Rs 2,100 per ton, sources said.

Earlier, in November 2015, the company had initially cut pet coke prices (retail) by Rs 800 per ton to Rs 4,400 per ton and again on November 25 by Rs 700 per ton to Rs 3,700 per ton to retain its customers in view of the sharp fall in prices in international markets.

The price of Rs 3,300 per ton for retail customers in January 2016 was down 45.45% as compared to Rs 6,050 per ton in January 2015.

While the decline in domestic pet coke prices was on account of a sharp fall in the price of the imported material, the decline in the latter was prompted by availability of additional material in the world market amidst a fall in demand from China and coming up of fresh capacity in Saudi Arabia, sources said.

With China out of the market and extra material coming up from Saudi Arabia, there was excess supply in the world market that prompted Indian refiners to cut prices to retain their domestic customer base.

Following table gives monthly price of RIL for loading in respective months starting November 2014: