Coal news and updates

Reliance procures imported pet coke

August 14: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest producer of petroleum coke, recently booked two cargos of imported petroleum coke from the US Gulf Coast to check if it can retain its existing customer base, an industry source said.

“RIL, at present, produces about 6 million tons of petroleum coke annually and all of it is supplied mainly to the domestic market. However, the company is putting up a pet coke gasification project, which will practically leave no material for sale in the domestic or export markets,” the source said.

According to information available with ICMW, RIL had contracted two cargos of imported pet coke. One is expected to arrive on the western coast (New Mangalore/Kandla) and another is likely to arrive on the east coast port (Paradip/Vizag).

“That the ships are arriving at two different ports and that too far away from the company’s refinery in Gujarat shows that the material has been sold to some customer,” the source felt.

ICMW assumes that RIL had finalised the deal in June as it is likely to arrive in August and the prevailing price for imported pet coke back then was about $98-100 per ton CFR India.