Coal news and updates

Saurashtra Fuels exports met coke to Pakistan

April 3: Saurashtra Fuels Ltd, India's largest merchant metallurgical coke maker, has recently exported for the first time a small consignment of the material to Pakistan by a vessel, an official from the company said.

"Till now we had been exporting met coke to Pakistan in containers. But for the first time, in February, we exported 11,000 tons of cargo to Pakistan by ship," an official from the company told ICMW.

The company had exported about 21,000 tons of met coke to Pakistan in 2014, the official said, adding, the material was being loaded at Mundra Port and unloaded at Karachi Port.

"We are right now exporting met coke to neighbouring countries, mainly Pakistan and Sri Lanka, but the quantity being exported to Sri Lanka is very small, at 200-300 tons per month. Exports to Pakistan are between 10,000-15,000 tons per month," the official said.

Asked about the export price, the official, "We are exporting the material at Indian rupee equivalent of Rs 18,500-Rs 20,000 per ton for lumps and at about Rs 16,500 per ton for smaller sized material."

"The realisations in exports are not that good because arrival of low price coking coal is yet to commence in sizeable quantity. We are still getting delivery of coking coal that was contracted at about $143 per ton whereas the current spot price is about $108 per ton," the official added.

Capacity utilisation:

The official said that Saurashtra Fuels is currently producing about 45,000 tons of met coke per month, which amounts to less than 50% capacity utilisation.

"Out of the 10 batteries that we have, only 5 are currently in operation because of difficult market situation," the official said.