Coal news and updates

Spurt in pet coke despatches by Indian refineries in May

June 09: The despatches of petroleum  coke (fuel grade) by rakes by major Indian refineries in May 2014, rose by 15.53% after registering a sharp dip of 21% in April, according to information available with ICMW.

According to information, a total of 119 rakes were despatched from six sidings of five refineries in May as compared to 103 rakes despatched in April.

The increase in despatches was largely on account of loading of higher number of rakes from siding of Reliance Industries Ltd. Other refineries too registered an increase in loading of rakes in May compared to April.

“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 as such the figures were high,” industry sources said.

“Also the refineries were under pressure to report better numbers in 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 of 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 purpose.”

“The situation is gradually looking up in RIL after the maintenance shut down and will improve further following a recent in prices of pet coke by the company for June loading,” sources said.

Following is the detailed monthly loading of pet coke from various Indian refineries between June 2013 and May 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, the 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, but that figure is not available with ICMW.

Of the total 68 rakes despatched from RIL’s SEZ siding in May, 23 rakes went 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).

In April, a total of 61 rakes were despatched from RIL’s SEZ siding of which11 rakes went to UltraTech, 22 rakes to Shree Cement, 7 rakes to J K Lakshmi Cement, 4 rakes to Tata Chemical, 3 rakes each to Holcim, Birla Corp and Saurashtra Cement, 2 rakes 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).

Of the 3 rakes despatched from RIL’s DTA siding in May, 2 went to UltraTech and 1 to ACC (Wadi).

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.

A total of 28 rakes were despatched from Essar Oil’s Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, up from 27 rakes in April, but lower from 32 rakes despatched in March.

Of the total 28 rakes despatched in May, 5 each had gone 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).

In April, of the total 27 rakes despatched from Vadinar, 4 rakes each had gone to Holcim, Mangalam Cement and UltraTech, 3 rakes each to Ambuja Cement, Prism Cement and J K (Nimhara), 2 rakes each to Lafarge and Heidelberg Cement and 1 rake each to Jaiprakash Cement and Tata Chemicals.

Bharat Oman Refinery Ltd (BORL), a joint venture of BPCL and Oman Refinery, had despatched a total of 9 rakes in May, up from 7 rakes in April from its Bina refinery. In March also, 7 rakes were despatched from the refinery.

Of the 9 rakes despatched from Bina in May, 2 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).

In April, of the 7 rakes despatched from Bina, 2 each had gone to Hiedelberg Cement, Birla Corporation and Ambuja Cement, while 1 rake went to Prism Cement.

The despatches from HPCL’s Bhatinda refinery increased to 8 rakes in May from 6 rakes in April with 6 rakes going to Ambuja (Himachal) and 1 each to Dalla and ACC (Himachal Pradesh).

In April, of the 6 rakes despatched from Batinda, 1 rake went to Jaiprakash Cement and the rest 5 rakes to Ambuja (Himachal).

A total of 3 rakes were despatched from IOCL Koyali (Baroda) refinery in May, up from only 1 rake in April.

All the 3 rakes in May went to Wonder Cement, while the lone rake in April had gone to Chettinad Cement.

Loading in rakes was started at Koyali in November 2013.