US Gulf petroleum coke prices were heard to be rising in part because of a Texas Gulf port disruption that occurred last week, while a major accident at the US east coast terminal of Baltimore today was likely to disrupt coal shipments to India and possibly boost coke demand.
A vessel damaged a shiploader at the Pabtex terminal in Port Arthur, Texas, blocking coke exports from the facility, according to multiple sources. There is not yet an official timeline for repairs, but market participants said it is likely to be out of service for about a month.
A Marshall Islands-flagged Supramax vessel named the Aruna Cengiz was seen to begin loading at the terminal on 17 March and departed on 25 March, according to shipping data from global trade analytics platform Kpler. It moved to Beaumont, Texas, and was last seen traveling down the Neches River this afternoon.
Pabtex serves Motiva's 626,000 b/d refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, which has the capacity to produce about 3mn t/yr of petroleum coke, mainly high-sulphur fuel grade.
"I think it's going to have a big impact, because you're taking away 3mn t of yearly production," one market participant said. "That's 250,000 t/month, or five vessels that you're taking away from the market. I would assume some impact at least short term on price."
But coke from the refinery could move to other terminals during the outage, and Aramco Trading, which markets Motiva's supply, was heard to have approached other terminal operators.
"I understand they have a clear backup plan, and in a few weeks, they will be loading from somewhere not Pabtex," another participant said. "If they do that, I don't think this will have a big impact."
But the seller may declare force majeure on a case-by-case basis, the second market participant said.
The outage was followed today by a catastrophic bridge collapse at the key Baltimore US coal export hub, which could block almost 1mn t/month of North Appalachian (NAPP) coal exports to India.
US petroleum coke was already more competitive than coal for Indian buyers, based on Argus spot price assessments. The price of cfr India 6.5pc sulphur coke averaged $3.74/mn Btu over 4-25 March, compared with $4.16/mn Btu for high-sulphur Illinois basin coal, the next cheapest alternative. NAPP coal averaged $4.86/mn Btu over the same period, down from $5.02/mn Btu in January. But today's accident affecting two major NAPP coal export terminals could cause this price to jump, which could push more Indian cement makers to seek high-sulphur US Gulf and Saudi Arabian coke.
There had been some additional spot petroleum coke shipments available in recent weeks after repairs were completed to a shiploader at a port in Corpus Christi, Texas. This port serves Flint Hills Resources, Valero and Citgo coking refineries. The shiploader was heard to have gone down sometime in November of last year, with the last coke shipment in Kpler data listed as 30 October. The next shipment was on 21 February. But this port handles a smaller volume of coke than Pabtex, with about 798,300t shipped in 2023 and an average of 873,800t over the past five years, according to US Census Bureau customs data.
Baltimore also ships some petroleum coke, but significantly lower volumes, with 95,600t shipped in 2023, according to customs.
