Coal news and updates

Rakes shortage hits refineries’ pet coke despatches in July

Aug 27: A severe shortage in railway rakes hampered despatches of pet coke (fuel grade) from major Indian refineries in July 2014, according to information available with ICMW.

Despatches from five siding of four major refineries in July were down by 16.84% with the number of rakes reducing to 79 after registering a decline of more than 20% in June at 95 rakes from 113 in May.

There were no despatches from Bhatinda refinery of HPCL as it was in shutdown mode after an incident of fire. Despatches from the refinery are likely to resume in September.

Following are the detailed monthly loading of pet coke from various Indian refineries between August 2013 and July 2014 (in number of rakes): 

One rake usually carries around 3,550 tons of pet coke. 

Beside rakes, despatches from domestic refineries also take place by trucks. For example, despatches from IOCL’s Koyali refinery generally takes place by trucks to consumers in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan though it had introduced rake loading in November 2013. 

Also, despatches by trucks take place from other refineries, including RIL’s DTA, but that figure is not available with ICMW. 

Of the total 51 rakes despatched from RILs SEZ siding in July, 20 rakes went to Shree Cement, 9 to J K Lakshmi Cement, 4 each to UltraTech and Saurashtra Cement, 3 rakes each to Tata Chemical and Birla Corporation and 1 rake each to Lafarge Cement, Hindustan Electro Graphite and Bhiwani Textiles.

In June, a total of 52 rakes were despatched from RIL’s SEZ siding of which 21 rakes went to Shree Cement, 10 to J K Lakshmi Cement, 7 to UltraTech Cement, 3 rakes each to Saurashtra Cement and Birla Corporation, 2 rakes each to Prism Cement and Tata Chemicals and 1 rake each to Ambuja (Rajasthan), Heidelberg Cement, Hindustan Electrographite and J K Cement (Nimhara).

Despatches from RIL’s DTA siding stood at only 3 rakes in July, down from 5 rakes in June. Two rakes went to UltraTech and 1 rake to Holcim (ACC) Cement in July.

In June, of the five rakes despatched, 4 had gone to UltraTech and 1 to ACC.

Despatches from Essar Oil’s Vadinar refinery fell to 18 rakes in July from 24 in June and 28 in May.

Of the 24 rakes despatched from the siding in July, 4 went to Ambuja Cement, 3 each to Prism Cement, Mangalam Cement, 2 each to J K Cement (Nimhara), UtraTech and Heidelberg Cement, and 1 each to Tata Chemical and Jaiprakash Group.

Of the 24 rakes despatched from Essar’s refinery in June, 5 each had gone to Mangalam Cement and UltraTech Cement, 3 rakes each to J K Cement (Nimhara) and Prism Cement, 2 rakes to Lafarge and 1 rake each to ACC (Wadi), Heidelberg Cement, J P Cement (Dalla), Ambuja Cement (Rajasthan), Tata Chemicals, and possibly to a brick kiln-maker at Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

Bharat Oman Refinery Ltd (BORL), a joint venture of BPC and Oman Refinery, had despatched a total of 6 rakes in July, same as that in June, but down from 9 rakes in May.

Of the 6 rakes despatched from the Bina siding of BORL in July, 2 had gone to Birla Corporation and 1 each to Prism Cement, Heidelberg Cement and a small trader.

In June, of the 6 rakes despatched from the Bina siding of BORL, 2 rakes went to Birla Corporation (Chittor), and 1 rake each to J P Cement (Rewa), J P Cement (Dalla), Heidelberg Cement and Sriram Phota.

A total of 2 rakes were despatches from Indian Oil Corporation Ltd’s (IOCL) Koyali (Baroda) siding in July and one each went to Prism and Holcim (ACC).

Though there were no despatches of rakes from HPCL’s Bhatinda refinery in July due to a fire incident, of the 7 rakes in June (down from 8 rakes in May) 5 went to Ambuja Cement (Himachal Pradesh) and 1 each to ACC and Khanna Paper Mill.

Only 1 rake was despatched from IOCL’s Koyali (Baroda) siding in June which went to ACC (Wadi).

Loading in rakes was started at Koyali in November 2013.