Coal news and updates

RIL keeps pet coke prices unchanged for May loading

May 16: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India's largest petroleum coke producer, has kept unchanged the ex-refinery price of fuel grade petroleum coke for loading in May 2014 at Rs 6,750 per ton, an industry source said.

The company had increased the price by Rs 100 per ton to Rs 6,750 per ton for April loading.

The roll-over was believed to have been prompted by little change in market dynamics and may also be because of an appreciation in the India currency to below Rs 60 versus the dollar that had made imports comparatively cheaper.

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 a sharp depreciation in the Indian currency.

This means, the company 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 which generally follow RIL in fixing their pet coke prices was not available, they are also likely to follow suit so far as fixing May 2014 loading prices are concerned, sources feel.