Very few deals were concluded for imported fuel grade petroleum coke in the Indian market due to the yawning gap between offers and buyers' expectations, sources said this week.

Platts assessed the weekly 30-60 day prices of fuel-grade petroleum coke with 6.5% sulfur at $76/mt CFR India East and $75/mt CFR India West, both unchanged from last week.

A south India-based trading source said that about a fortnight ago, he had sold a prompt Supramax shipment of US petcoke with 6-7% sulfur at $79.40/mt CFR west coast on two-port discharge basis. The vessel is currently on its way, he said.

He added that offers were in the range of $79-$80/mt CFR but buyers' expectations were in the low $70s/mt CFR.

"But deals in the low $70s/mt CFR are possible only in dreams," he said.

A north India-based trader said that he had offered a Panamax cargo of US Gulf petcoke with 6.5% sulfur at $78/mt CFR west coast for end-April loading.

He said that he expected to close the deal next week though he too agreed that buyers were aiming for very low numbers.

Since crude oil prices are falling, Indian buyers' price expectations are still low, he said.

There was a bid from an Indian buyer at $75/mt CFR east coast for a Panamax cargo of US Gulf petcoke with 6%-7% sulfur, but he said he doubted whether a deal could be done at that price, he added.

However, a north India-based end-user source said that there were offers at $75/mt CFR, which were negotiable.

He said the FOB price was around $53/mt and freight rate was at around $22-23/mt from the US Gulf to India, adding that offer prices of $78-$79/mt CFR were too high.

Another end-user source from northern region said that he had received offers at around $75-$77/mt CFR but he was not keen to buy imported petcoke due to congestion and logistics constraints on the east coast of India.

A west India-based end-user source also said that there were offers in the range of $75-$77/mt CFR but buyers were looking at $72-$74/mt CFR.

He, however, declined to share the details of a shipment of USG petcoke with 6.5% sulfur that he had recently bought but said that there were plenty of offers and many cement companies were showing buying interest.

The first trader from south India agreed that there was ample supply and "India had become the largest importer of fuel grade petcoke in the world."

But he said the "realistic price" was in the high $70s/mt CFR.

SAUDI ARABIAN PETCOKE

Meanwhile, sources said that a Supramax shipment of petcoke with more than 8% sulfur from Jubail in Saudi Arabia was bought by an Indian cement company for March loading and for delivery to east coast India.

However, the price and other details were not immediately available.

The first trader said that Saudi petcoke offers were at around $67/mt CFR Supramax basis, which are negotiable by up to 50 cents, but end-users in India are expecting prices of $65-$66/mt CFR for this material.