Metallurgical coke is an important part of the iron and steelmaking process because it provides the carbon and heat required to chemically reduce iron ore in blast furnaces to molten pig iron. The world coke consumption was 357 million tonnes in 2001, which has grown to around 600 million tonnes in 2010. In North America and Europe coke production has declined and the shortage is projected to exceed more than 12 million tons annually over the next 20 years. In UK and France each, a shortage of two million TPA has been estimated. Other European countries are also shutting capacity and coke-manufacturing capacities are being relocated to Asian countries.
China used to export up to 15 million tonnes a year till 2008 which got reduced drastically to a meager over ½ millon tonnes in 2009 and just over 3 MT in 2010. Hence the world faces an acute shortage of met coke today.. The demand has picked up immensely post the recession. With shortage of coking coal in the market, steel makers are also opting to buy met coke directly from merchant coke producers to keep their blast furnaces running. The world is today staring at an acute shortage of met coke when the world coke trade would reach to the level of 30 MTPA (say by 2012). The void created by the Chinese coke is hard to fill and it is everybody’s guess how the shortage of 12 MTPA of Chinese coke would be met then. Prices are sure to rise further in future as an eminent outcome of shortage.
The actual production of met coke as against the expected demand in the coming years is graphically plotted below.
As evident from above, there is going to be huge demand of coke in the coming years and supply is bound to become an issue.
The graph depicts the extreme price volatility of met coke. Coke prices, like that of all other commodities are cyclical in nature. While many try to ride the cycle, no one can claim complete knowledge of the same, which continues to baffle and burn with impunity.
At Gujarat NRE Coke, we, having faith in our self and our long term commitment to the business, ensure that every time the prices go down, we use the downturn to invest in capacities, to create and enhance our production facilities so that when the inevitable upturn comes, we are able to produce and create more wealth. Gujarat NRE Coke has been one of the major met coke exporters in the country. The company has been making regular exports to various countries like Brazil, Japan, European and SE Asian Countries. India surely has the capacity to become one of the major coke exporting countries.
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