India has allocated more import quotas of calcined petroleum coke (CPC) from a year earlier for the April 2025-March 2026 fiscal year, while allocations of green petroleum coke (GPC) quota to calciners are marginally lower on the year.
India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), which is part of the commerce and industry ministry, allocated a CPC import quota of 775,000t in a meeting last month, according to minutes reviewed by Argus. This was up from 500,000t in 2024-25.
The DGFT allocated about 1.87mn t of GPC quota for 2025-26, marginally below the 1.9mn t granted for previous year. This quota was distributed among 25 calciners, with Rain CII Carbon securing the highest allocation of 462,589t for 2025-26, while fellow calciner Sanvira was granted permission to import 374,477t.
Goa Carbon was granted a quota of 274,354t, while Paradip Calciner received a quota of 106,993t. Petro Carbon was given a quota of 83,583t, while Neo Carbons got an approval for imports of 66,871t. Brahmaputra Carbon and Guwahati Carbon secured 50,000t each. India Carbon (West Bengal) was granted a quantity of 49,563t, while India Carbon (Guwahati) received 43,828t. The remaining quota was distributed among 15 other calciners.
The DGFT made the allocations in proportion to calciners' production capacity. In cases where calciners sought less than they were eligible for, the surplus was proportionately distributed among all the applicants. But in most of these cases, the allocated quantity was down from last year.
The 775,000t CPC quota for 2025-26 was made to four aluminium smelters — Vedanta, Bharat Aluminium, Hindalco Industries, and state-controlled producer Nalco. Vedanta received 336,608t, Hindalco 262,126t, Bharat Aluminium 116,265t, and Nalco 60,000t.
The GPC quota for calciners was hiked by 500,000 t/yr to 1.9mn t/yr from the 2024-25 fiscal year onwards, following a February 2024 order by the Commission for Air Quality Management. The order also raised the CPC quota to 800,000 t/yr with effect from the 2025-26 fiscal year, from 500,000 t/yr previously.
Calciners and smelters are expected to purchase seaborne GPC and CPC based on these quotas and complete imports before 31 March 2026. Companies that are unable to fully utilise the approved quota must inform the DGFT by 31 October so that the unused quota is redistributed among other companies.
Higher domestic supplies limit CPC imports
A sharp increase in domestic CPC output and supplies in the last fiscal year, because of higher GPC import quotas and a price advantage compared to the seaborne market, limited smelters' imports of CPC. Most smelters were not able to use the allocated import quotas last year, said a market participant. It is unlikely that smelters would be able to entirely utilise the increased quota this year, he added.
A higher CPC supply is already reducing India's demand for CPC imports from regions like China and the Mideast Gulf. Indian smelters are also finding themselves in a stronger position to negotiate domestic purchases and imported cargoes, with companies choosing domestic supply over imports from China. "This is an unusual situation as imported cargoes have been historically cheaper," one said.
Meanwhile, domestic calciners are expected to continue to be aggressive in their pricing because of increased capacity use and higher economies of scale. Most imports will be done on a case-to-case basis when it offers a quality or price advantage, said another participant.
Smelters received 350,800t of CPC over April 2024-February 2025, according to data from shipbroker Interocean. This was down from 491,000t a year earlier and well below the quota of 500,000t for the year ended 31 March. March data was not yet available but the total for 2024-25 should still be well below the quota.
