Despite strong efforts to obtain higher levels in deals lately, foreign suppliers of metallurgical coke to India have remained quite flexible in negotiations. According to a few reliable sources, an Indian customer has recently succeeded in booking ex-Poland BF coke at $415/mt CFR, although the latest offers for met coke (65-66% CSR) have reached up to $460-465/mt CFR. Meanwhile, yesterday, a deal for ex-Indonesia met coke was reported at $430/mt CFR. Nevertheless, suppliers of ex-Indonesia coke have continued to claim that the levels in question are FOB-based. “With the availability of low-priced import met coke, deal conversion in the domestic market is very low,” a representative of an Indian steel mill stated. The current local prices of met coke in India are mostly at INR 40,000/mt ($483/mt) ex-works.
As SteelOrbis reported earlier, an Indian state-run steel producer Steel Authority of India Limited’s (SAIL) IISCO steel plant has floated purchase tenders for coke products, namely for 10,000 mt of blast furnace (BF) grade coke (30-80 mm) and 45,000 mt of coke breeze (0-15 mm). The deadlines for bids are February 13 and February 11, respectively. Previously, on February 2 the mill concluded a supply contract for 10,000 mt of BF grade coke at INR 43,500/mt ex-works, with delivery on February 18, with an option to place another contract for the same volume of BF coke, with mid-March delivery. According to the customer's terms, the price may be increased by 0.3 percent if the order is confirmed by February 28.