India’s Supreme Court has finalised a ban on petcoke imports with exemptions for some key industrial users, including the cement sector.

In a ruling released this weekend, the court agreed to put into place recommendations from the court-appointed Environment Pollution Prevention & Control Authority (EPCA) to limit imports only to those industries using coke as a feedstock or in the manufacturing process, not as a fuel. The EPCA had listed those industries as cement, lime kilns, calcium carbide and gasification. "Import should be allowed only for these industries in the country", the EPCA said in minutes from an 18 July meeting.

The decision has come as a relief to cement producers, which are the country’s biggest coke importers. In the first half of 2018, they imported some 2.2Mt while full-year imports reached 7.7Mt in 2017.

It is expected that the final ruling may revive the petcoke market. However, buyers may continue to focus on US Northern Appalachian coal, depending on the cost differentials between the two fuels and the 10 per cent import tax on coke introduced last December.