India imported 809,000t of petcoke in October 2019, up more than 364 per cent from the year-ago period, according to Iman Resources. The imports were primarily sent from the US and Saudi Arabia, at 372,000t and 295,000t, respectively. Oman sent 38,000t, while 32,000t came from China. The origin of the remaining 72,000t was not clarified.
The spike has been related to the lifting of the petcoke consumption order in October 2018, which saw cement producers increase their fuel-grade petcoke imports.
Thermal coal
However, thermal coal imports were down 16 per cent YoY in October 2019 to 14.7Mt. Most imported US thermal coal ends up in the cement sector, which alone has imported 3.3Mt in the 10M19, against 4.2Mt in the full-year 2018.
The biggest cement consumers of imported US coal are UltraTech Cement (importing 1.2Mt in the 10M19), India Cements Ltd (629,000t) and Shree Cement (434,000t), according to the report.
