Coal news and updates

Sharp fall in pet coke despatches by Indian refineries in June

July 21: Despatches of petroleum coke (fuel grade) via rakes by major Indian refineries fell by more than 20% in June 2014 after registering a decline of 15.53% in the preceding month of May, according to information available with ICMW.

A total of 95 rakes were despatched from six sidings of five major refineries in June compared to 119 in May.

The decline in despatches was on account of loading of lesser number of rakes from almost all the refineries, indicating low demand from the consuming sectors, market sources said.

Low demand for cement in the country due to rains in many regions led to lower production and consequent fall in demand for pet coke. Also, as the monsoon is likely to gather momentum in July-August, the cement-makers opted to keep their inventories at low levels.

Following are details of monthly loading of pet coke from various Indian refineries between July 2013 and June 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 takes place from other refineries, including RIL’s DTA. 

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

In May, a total of 68 rakes were despatched from RIL’s SEZ siding with 23 rakes going to Shree Cement, 11 to UltraTech, 10 to J K Lakshmi Cement, 4 to Tata Chemicals, 3 each to Shaurashtra Cement and Birla Corporation, 2 each to Prism Cement, Ambuja (Rajasthan), Lafarge and J K Cement while 1 rake each went to Hindustan National Glass (Budge Budge), Orissa Cement, Hindustan Electrographite, Grasim (Nagda), Grasim (Bhiwani) and ACC (Wadi). 

The despatches from RIL’s DTA siding stood at 5 rakes in June, up from 3 in May. Of the five rakes in June, 4 went to UltraTech and 1 to ACC whereas in May UltraTech had taken 2 rakes and ACC (Wadi) 1.

Despatches from Essar Oil’s Vadinar refinery fell to 24 rakes in June from 28 in May. Of the 24 rakes in May, 5 each went to Mangalam Cement and UltraTech Cement, 3 rakes each to J K Cement (Nimhara) and Prism Cement, 2 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.

In May, the despatches from Essar were as following:

5 rakes each to UltraTech and Mangalam Cement, 4 to Prism Cement, 3 each to Lafarge and J K Cement (Nimhara), 2 each to Heidelberg Cement and Chettinad Cement while 1 each had gone to JP (Rewa), ACC (Wadi), Hindustan National Glass (Budge Budge) and Ambuja (Rajasthan). 

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

Of the 6 rakes despatched from 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.

In May, 2 rakes each had gone to Heidelberg Cement and Prism Cement, while 1 rake each went to Dalla Cement (formerly of JP), Birla Corporation (Satna), ACC (Lakheri), J P (Rewa) and Birla Corporation (Chittor) from the Bina siding of BORL.

Despatches from HPCL’s Bhatinda refinery stood at 7 rakes, down from 8 rakes in May with 5 rakes going to Ambuja Cement (Himachal Pradesh) and 1 each to ACC and Khanna Paper Mill.

In May, the destination of 8 rakes was as following: 6 rakes to Ambuja (Himachal) and 1 each to J P Cement (Dalla) and ACC (Himachal Pradesh). 

Only 1 rake was despatched from IOCL’s Koyali (Baroda) siding which went to ACC (Wadi) while a total of 3 rakes were despatched from the siding in May, all of which went to Wonder Cement.

Loading on to rakes was started at Koyali in November 2013.