Key message: Five years of customs data show a calcined petroleum coke (CPC) market of roughly 6 million tonnes and US$3 billion a year that lost volume among its five largest exporters, saw supply de-concentrate from the United States and China toward Oman and India, and re-routed itself toward the Gulf as regional sourcing displaced longer-haul cargoes.

Note on the data. Figures are drawn from UN Comtrade (HS 271312, “petroleum coke, calcined”), 2021-2025. The United Kingdom, Kuwait and Argentina do not publish export statistics and are shown on a partner-reported (mirror) basis, marked with an asterisk (*); the same applies to the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain for 2024-2025. Germany’s reported 2024-2025 export figures diverge sharply from partner countries’ records and are excluded; where a German figure is needed, the mirror estimate is used instead. HS 271312 covers every grade of calcined petroleum coke – anode-grade CPC, needle coke and recarburiser grades alike – so unit values are blended trade values, not a single-grade price benchmark. 2025 figures are preliminary.

This post continues our market-data series for procurement and trading teams. It covers how large the calcined petcoke market is, which countries supply which regions, and where the trade data itself has gaps worth knowing before drawing commercial conclusions.

What “calcined petcoke” covers here

HS 271312 covers petroleum coke after calcination – the product that leaves the calciner, as distinct from the green (uncalcined) petroleum coke covered in an earlier post in this series. The code does not distinguish anode-grade CPC from needle coke or recarburiser-grade material, so a single average price can blend flows worth under US200/t with flows worth more than US1,500/t. Every average value below is a trade-weighted blend across grades, not a benchmark for any one specification.

Market size: fewer tonnes, a price spike that unwound

The five largest exporters – the United States, China, Oman, India and Brazil – shipped 5.0 million tonnes (Mt) of CPC in 2025, 9% less than in 2021 (5.5 Mt). Value moved further: their combined exports were worth US2.3 billion in 2025, against a 2022 peak of US4.0 billion. The trade-weighted FOB value fell from about US710/t in 2022 to US418/t in 2024, then recovered to roughly US$470/t in 2025 on broadly flat volumes.

Supply is de-concentrating

The United States remains the largest exporter at 2.23 Mt in 2025, down 33% from 3.35 Mt in 2021; China shipped 1.21 Mt, down 22% year on year and its lowest level of the five-year window – its deliveries to India alone have halved since 2021 (420 kt to 198 kt). Oman went from a negligible 0.3 kt in 2021 to 613 kt in 2025, now the third-largest exporter in the dataset; India tripled its exports to 514 kt and Brazil rebounded 48% year on year to 423 kt. Together the US and China accounted for 59% of tracked exports in 2025, down from 72% in 2021. Three further exporters are invisible in Comtrade’s own export data and appear only in their customers’ import records: the United Kingdom (around 0.5 Mt a year), Kuwait and Argentina.

China’s declared export value held up better than its tonnage: US598 million in 2025, little changed from US596 million in 2024 despite a 22% drop in volume, as its trade-weighted unit value rose from US387/t to US496/t.

The Gulf is the largest demand pole, and routes are shortening

Demand sits across six poles: the Gulf took roughly 1.4 Mt of tracked exports in 2025, ahead of North America (approx. 0.95 Mt), Europe (approx. 0.9 Mt), Oceania (approx. 0.75 Mt), India (approx. 0.5 Mt) and Africa (approx. 0.5 Mt). Regional sourcing is visibly displacing long-haul cargoes: Chinese deliveries to the Gulf fell from 693 kt in 2024 to 492 kt in 2025 while Omani supply to its neighbours rose from 290 kt to 392 kt over the same period. Saudi Arabia now takes more CPC from Oman (196 kt) than from China (42 kt, down from 182 kt in 2021), and Bahrain has switched from Indian to Omani material (95 kt to 42 kt; 0 kt to 126 kt). Elsewhere, US exporters returned to India (117 kt in 2025, after 11 kt in 2024) and Brazil nearly doubled shipments to North America (227 kt).

India: from a 0.4 Mt net importer toward balance

India is the structural change of the period. Its imports stayed in a 0.5-0.7 Mt range while its exports rose from 166 kt in 2021 to 514 kt in 2025; net imports shrank from 403 kt to just 13 kt over the same four years. India is now close to balanced in CPC trade and, on the current trend, is within reach of becoming a net exporter.

The buyers: top importing countries, 2021 vs 2025

Australia, Canada and the UAE each import roughly 0.6-0.7 Mt, making them the largest single destinations in the dataset, though the UAE's 2024-2025 figures are partner-estimated since it stopped reporting its own import statistics. The clearest growth sits further down the list: Brazil's imports nearly doubled (160 kt to 317 kt), Norway rose 19% to 297 kt, and Indonesia grew 89% to 108 kt. Spain and the Netherlands - both partly hubs for re-exported material - fell furthest, down 49% and 40% respectively.

Prices converged

In 2025 the average FOB values of the five main origins sat within a US65/t band: China US496/t, USA US473/t, Brazil US455/t, Oman US449/t and India US431/t. In 2022 the spread was roughly US$250/t, with Chinese and Indian material commanding the premium. As noted above, HS 271312 blends every grade of calcined petroleum coke, so this is a convergence in trade-weighted value, not evidence that specification-grade prices converged.

What to watch in 2026

·         Whether regional Gulf supply continues to displace Chinese and long-haul cargoes.

·         Whether US exports stabilise near 2.2 Mt after four years of decline.

·         Whether India turns net exporter.

·         Whether China's 2025 drop is a one-off or a trend.

Limitations to keep in mind

Several exporters - the United Kingdom, Kuwait and Argentina among them - do not publish export statistics and appear only through partner (mirror) data, which typically lands within about +/-10-20% of a supplier's own figures where both exist. The UAE, Qatar and Bahrain had not published 2024 and/or 2025 import data at the time of extraction; their 2024-2025 figures use the same mirror approach. Germany's reported 2024-2025 export growth does not reconcile with partner countries' import records (a roughly 592,000-tonne gap on the Germany-Netherlands flow alone) and is excluded from this analysis. A number of world-level records across the five years carry a missing weight, recovered where possible from alternate quantity fields. A handful of records priced well below US$200 per tonne are likely misclassified fuel-grade coke rather than calcined material and are excluded from rankings and price averages; Morocco's 2025 imports, among others, fall into this category. 2025 coverage is incomplete - 87 import reporters against 104 in 2024 - and should be treated as preliminary.

Source: UN Comtrade Database (comtradeplus.un.org), HS 271312, annual data 2021-2025, extracted October 2026. Supply and flow figures are exporter-reported except where marked (*); those are estimated from partner countries' trade records. Coverage is limited by the timeliness and completeness of national reporting; figures may be revised in later releases.

Procurement takeaway

Five years of data describe a CPC market that lost volume at the top while gaining new, more regional suppliers, re-routed a meaningful share of Gulf demand away from long-haul Chinese cargoes, and pushed India from a clear net importer toward balance. None of it substitutes for grade-level specification: a customs code cannot show calcination degree, sulphur content or anode suitability, only where material moved and roughly what it cost along the way.

Prime Elements GmbH trades green and calcined petroleum coke and arranges logistics across Europe, the Gulf, Asia and the Americas. For cargo enquiries: contact.