India's total met coke production in November fell by 16% m-o-m to 3.29 mnt, according to data compiled with CoalMint. Out of the total production, a significant drop of 70% m-o-m, has been recorded in case of merchant met coke production at 0.19 mnt, while in case of captive production the same came down by 6% to 36.8 mnt.

India's key steel indicators in November

India's crude steel production for November remained largely unchanged m-o-m at 10.3 mnt, whereas country's hot metal production dropped by 4% m-o-m to 6.6 mnt. The pig iron production fell by 20% to 0.48 mnt in November, thus impacting merchant met coke requirement, especially from independent pig iron producers.

India's steel exports fell 53% (nearly halved) year-on-year in November to 3,38,000 tonnes because of weakened global cues by downturn in the metal cycle. Meanwhile, mills here cut back on production, indicative of the slowing down demand. Finished steel production was lower by 4% m-o-m in November for SAIL, 6% in case of Tata Steel, and 7.4% for AM/ NS, JSW, JSPL and others combined.

Imported met coke stocked up by mills

In addition, Indian mills have sufficiently stocked up cheaper imported met coke in past two months further impacting domestic met coke production. According to CoalMint's data, India's met coke imports rose by more than 100% in October-November 2022 to 0.74 mnt, against August-September 2022.

Chinese met coke have been available at quite a cheaper rate against domestic met coke amid sluggish steel demand there due to Covid restrictions. This has also impacted India's in-house met coke demand and production.

Outlook

India's met coke production in December is also likely to remain in the similar range as mills have sufficient stock. This coupled with cheaper availability of steel imports from China, Japan, and Korea may restrict any significant rise in domestic steel production, thus impacting the country's met coke requirement.