Demand for low ash metallurgical (LAM) coke, an important input material for steel-making, is set to rise as steel mills in India plan to enhance capacity to meet demand in the near to long term, according to industry sources.
The country’s overall metallurgical coke production capacity is estimated to be 4550 million tons (mt) per annum annually. Out of the total production, integrated large steel mills like Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Tata Steel, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) and JSW Steel have a combined captive capacity of around 35 mt per annum annually, according to industry sources.
Medium mills like Adhunik, Jayaswal Neco, Uttam Galva and secondary steel mills have an estimated capacity of 5-6 mt per annum. The merchant mills make up around 10 mt of LAM coke production in the country, sources said.
However, plant utilisation of merchant producers has declined to 40 percent levels due to imports available at lower cost. There have been unrestricted imports from China at prices well below the cost of production in the originating country.
The increasing price volatility of imported coking coal and poor domestic supply of good quality coking coal has further affected the merchant coke producers.
India imported around 2.01 mt of met coke in 2018-19, up from 1.61 mt in 201011.
With expected production of at least 250 million tons of crude steel in India by 2030-31, the metallurgical coke production capacity has to be suitably built up.
Coke rate in blast furnaces is targeted to be reduced to 300-350 Kg/tHM.
At these rates, for a conservative estimate of 250 mt of crude steel demand by 2030-31, around 100 mt of met coke is required for consumption of the steel industry alone. The steel industry alone has to build up another 70-75 mtpa of coke production capacity by 2030-31, industry sources said.
What is met coke?
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2019 من Steel Insights.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2019 من Steel Insights.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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