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RIL hikes pet coke prices by Rs 300/t for Feb loading

After cutting prices over past 8 consecutive months, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has increased the price of petroleum coke by Rs 300 per ton for loading in February on easing of inventory levels and also to discount the depreciation in the Indian currency versus the US dollar, industry sources told ICMW.

ICMW had reported on January 29 that domestic refiners are likely to increase prices for February loading by Rs 100-150 per ton to offset the impact of the depreciation in the rupee against the US dollar.

In fact, the Indian rupee had depreciated to nearly Rs 68 to $1 towards the end of January from less than Rs 67 to $1 at the beginning of the month.

However, the increase in pet coke prices for February loading was higher than what ICMW had estimated, largely because of the easing of inventories with various refineries.

According to industry sources, RIL’s inventory was down to around 120,000-140,000 tons as in end-January from a high of 170,000-180,000 tons at the beginning of the month.

The inventory level at Essar was down to 50,000-60,000 tons from about 100,000 tons at the beginning of month while that at Indian Oil Corporation was down to 40,000-50,000 tons from 70,000 tons, they said.

With the first increase after a gap of eight months, RIL’s price of pet coke for bulk consumers for loading in February stands at Rs 2,600 per ton (ex-refinery) and that for retail consumers at Rs 3,800 per ton, sources said.

The company had cut prices by Rs 200 per ton in January, but had increased it by a similar amount later during the month to match fluctuation in currency rates.

The company, which fixes pet coke prices on the first working day of a month, had initially decided to keep prices unchanged at Rs 3,700 per ton in December, but after a few days it had cut prices by Rs 200 per ton to Rs 3,500 per ton.

It had again cut prices 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 was fixed at Rs 2,100 per ton.

Later on, it increased the price for bulk customers to Rs 2,300 per ton and that for retail customers to Rs 3,500 per ton in January itself.

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 international markets.

While the decline in domestic pet coke prices was on account of a sharp fall in the imported variety, the decline in the price of the latter was prompted by availability of additional material in the world market amidst a fall in demand from China and setting 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 its domestic customer base.

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

 Source: ICMW