Coal news and updates

Sharp rise in pet coke despatches by refineries in March

April 8: Loading of petroleum coke (fuel grade) via rakes by major Indian refineries in March 2014, the last month of 2013-14, stood at 131 rakes, up 20% against 109 in February, according to information available with ICMW.

The rise in March despatches was reported mainly from the SEZ refinery of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), but others, including Essar Oil, notched up a better performance.

Despatches generally go up in the last month of any financial year as refineries rush to load material to show an improved performance during the year, industry sources said.

Earlier, it was expected that despatches by RIL would be lower in March due to a planned maintenance shutdown. However, that did not happen despite the company opting for shut-down at one of its refineries from March 20, industry sources said.

Following is detailed monthly loading of pet coke from various Indian refineries from April 2013-March 2014 (in number of rakes for 3,550 tons):

One rake usually carries around 3,550 tons of pet coke. Beside rakes, despatches from domestic refineries also take place via 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.

Of the total number of 77 rakes loaded from RIL’s SEZ in March 2014, 36 went to Shree Cement, 11 to UltraTech, 10 to J K Lakshmi Cement, 5 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.

In February, of the 65 rakes loaded from RIL’s SEZ, 33 had gone to Shree Cement,  9 rakes each to J K Lakshmi Cement and UltraTech, 3  each to Prism, Tata Chemicals, Saurashtra Cement and Holcim Cement, while the names of the recipients of 2 rakes could not be ascertained immediately though it is estimated that one rake each went to J K Cement and Grasim/UltraTech (Bhiwani).

All the 7 rakes loaded from RIL’s DTA siding in March went to UltraTech.

In February, of the 7 rakes loaded from RIL’s DTA siding, Binani Cement had received 4 and UltraTech Cement had received 3 rakes.

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

In February, Essar Oil had loaded 27 rakes of which 7 went to UltraTech, 4 each to Mangalam Cement and Holcim, 3 rakes each to Heidelberg and Prism Cement, 2 each to Maihar Cement and JK Cement (Karnataka) and 1 each to Jaiprakash Cement and Hindustan Electrographite.

Bharat Oman Refinery Ltd (BORL), a joint venture of BPCL and Oman Refinery, had despatched a total of 7 rakes in March compared to 5 in February.

Of the 7 rakes in March, 2 each went to Heidelberg Cement and Century Cement while 1 each went to Maihar Cement, Prism Cement and Ambuja Cement.

In February, of the 5 rakes loaded by BORL, 1 rake each went to Prism Cement, Jaiprakash Cement, Heidelberg, Maihar Cement and Century Cement.

Despatches from HPCL’s Bhatinda refinery too increased in March to 7 rakes as against 4 in February.

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

A total of 4 rakes were despatched from HPCL’s Bhatinda refinery in February 2014 with 1 going to Jaiprakash Cement and 3 to Holcim (ACC/Ambuja).

Only one rake was despatched from IOCL’s Koyali (Baroda) refinery in March as well as in February 2014. While the material, in March, went to Prism Cement, the February despatch from Koyali went to UltraTech.

Loading in rakes was started at Koyali in November 2013 when 3 rakes of pet coke were despatched, but only 1 rake was despatched in December 2013.