The operating rate of 18 key steel mills in northern China reached 99.34%, coke enterprises were in full capacity, and coke price in Q4 2020 will probably hit a new high within the year, SteelHome learned at 2020 China Coal and Coke Industry Conference.
“De-capacity in coke industry achieved remarkable results”, Hanshuang Wang, GM of Coke Division of Xuyang Group Marketing and Sales Company, said at the conference. “Coke production capacity will be reduced by over 20 million tons in 2020 given the de-capacity process in Shanxi and Hebei coke industry and production restriction in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region during the heating season. As a result, coke production will fall to around 460 million tons in 2020, down 2.3% year on year”, he added.
Wang believed that coke supply gap caused by de-capacity policy was 3.21 million tons, however, the rise in steel output raised coke demand by 11.34 million tons. According to data tracked by Xuyang Group, the operating rate of 18 key steel mills in northern China reached 99.34%, up 10.1% year over year. Meanwhile, the total social stockpiles of coke was 7.17 million tons, down 2.44 million tons from the same period of last year. In addition, the available days of coke stockpiles at key steel mills in northern China was 11.5 days, 4.5 days lower than the same period of last year. It is expected that China’s coke prices will increase amid fluctuation in the fourth quarter of 2020, and will possibly hit a new high within the year.
(To contact the reporter on this story: leo.ji@steelhome.cn or 86-555-2238932 18616060095) |
