Coal news and updates

Sharp fall in pet coke despatches by Indian refineries in April

May 16: Despatches of petroleum coke (fuel grade) via rakes by major Indian refineries in April 2014, the first month of fiscal 2014-15, fell by over 21% to 103 rakes from 131 in March 2014,  according to information available with ICMW.

The decline in overall despatches was largely on account of a fall in loading by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Essar Oil, while others like Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL)- Bina, HPCL (Bhatinda) and IOCL (Koyali) remained unchanged over March despatches.

"March, being the last month of 2013-14, the refineries were under pressure to come out with better performance and as such they had gone for higher despatches and the figures were thus high," industry sources said.

"Also, the refineries were under pressure to report better numbers in the second half of 2013-14 after having reported a not-so-good performance in the first half of the year," they added.

"However, RIL and Essar were forced to take maintenance shutdown in April and that was the primary reason for lower despatches in the month," an official from a cement company said, adding, "But that is normal as any plant which runs round-the-clock takes a months' shutdown in any particular year for maintenance purposes."

Industry sources had earlier expected RIL to take a maintenance shutdown in March 2014 itself but, because of year-end consideration, it could not do so and finally a 20-day shutdown was taken after March 20, sources said.

Following are monthly loading details of pet coke from various Indian refineries between April 2013 and April 2014 (in number of rakes):

One rake usually carries around 3,550 tons of pet coke. Beside rakes, the 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 details are unavailable.

Of the total 61 rakes despatched from RIL's SEZ in April 2014, 11 went to UltraTech, 22 to Shree Cement, 7 to J K Lakshmi Cement, 4 to Tata Chemical, 3 each to Holcim, Birla Corp and Saurashtra Cement, 2 each to Ambuja Cement and J K (Nimhara) and 1 each to Prism Cement, Lafarge, Hindustan Electrographite, and one to an unknown destination in Hashimara (may be Nepal).

In March 2014, of the total 77 rakes loaded from RIL's SEZ, 36 rakes went to Shree Cement, 11 to UltraTech, 10 to J K Lakshmi Cement, 5 rakes to Tata Chemicals, 4 to ACC/Ambuja, 3 each to Saurashtra Cement, Birla Cement and Prism Cement, and 1 rake each to J K Cement (Nimhara) and a plant in Budge Budge.

The sole rake loaded from RIL's DTA siding in April went to UltraTech, which had received all the 7 rakes loaded from the siding in March as well.

The despatches from Essar Oil's Vadinar refinery in Gujarat fell to 27 rakes in April. Of the total, 4 rakes each had gone to Holcim, Mangalam Cement and UltraTech, 3 rakes each to Ambuja Cement, Prism Cement and J K (Nimhara), 2 each to Lafarge and Hiedelberg Cement and 1 rake each to Jaiprakash Cement and Tata Chemicals.

In March, of the 32 rakes despatched from Essar Oil's refinery 7 rakes went to ACC/Ambuja, 6 to UltraTech, 5 to Mangalam Cement, 3 to Prism Cement, 2 each to Heidelberg Cement, J K (Nimhara) and Lafarge and 1 each to J P (Rewa), Hindustan Electrographite, Maihar Cement, Sriram Fertilizer while the name of the recipient of 1 rake was not available.

Bharat Oman Refinery Ltd (BORL), a joint venture of BPCL and Oman Refinery, had despatched a total of 7 rakes in April from its Bina refinery. In March too, 7 rakes were despatched from the refinery.

Of the 7 rakes in April 2014, 2 each had gone to Hiedelberg Cement, Birla Corporation and Ambuja Cement, while 1 rake went to Prism Cement.

In March, of the 7 rakes despatched from Bina, 2 each went to Heidelberg Cement and Century Cement while 1 each went to Maihar Cement, Prism Cement and Ambuja Cement.

The despatches from HPCL's Bhatinda refinery stood at 6, down from 7 rakes in March, with 1 rake going to Jaiprakash Cement and the rest of the 5 rakes to Ambuja (Himachal).

Of the 7 rakes in March, 6 had gone to ACC/Ambuja and 1 to JP Cement (Dalla).

Only one rake was despatched from IOCL's Koyali (Baroda) refinery in April 2014, which had gone to Chettinad Cement. In March as well as in February 2014, only 1 rake was despatched from Koyalai which had gone to Prism Cement and UltraTech respectively.

Loading in rakes was started at Koyali in November 2013.