Coal news and updates

RIL raises pet coke prices by Rs 200/ton for Nov loading

November 8: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India's largest petroleum coke maker, has increased the price of the material by Rs 200 per ton to Rs 6,500 per ton ex-refinery for loading in October, an industry source said.

"RIL has increased the price by Rs 200 per ton for November loading. There is no reason as such but as international prices of other fuels have firmed up a bit in recent times, they too have increased the prices," the source said.

"It appears that, because of a slight firmness in imported pet coke prices due to the increase in freight rates, the company wants to sell its material at a higher price," the source added.

RIL had kept October loading prices unchanged after increasing the same by Rs 300 per ton for September loading to Rs 6,300 per ton. Earlier, it had increased the price by Rs 100 per ton in July from Rs 5900 per ton.

Both in July and in September, the company had increased the prices to off-set the impact of depreciation in Indian currency versus US Dollar.

Though information from other refiners like Essar, HPCL and BORL which generally follow RIL in fixing their pet coke price, is not available at present but they are also likely to follow the leader, sources feel.

"There is at present demand for pet coke in India, particularly of domestic origin material, but it cannot be said that demand has gone up significantly," an official of a refinery said.

RIL had increased prices of its pet coke by Rs 600 per ton between March and November from a low of Rs 5700 per ton in February.

Earlier, between December 2012 and February 2013, the Indian refiners had rolled over the prices before resorting to increase in March and April 2013. They had cut prices by Rs 400 and Rs 150 per ton in November 2012 and October 2012 respectively.