China's annual coke demand is estimated to reach around 440 million-450 million mt in 2012, up about 3% year on year, a release out Thursday from the China Coking Industry Association said.
The estimate has been based on the forecast that China's annual crude steel output may exceed 700 million mt in 2012. The CCIA expects crude steel output to rise around 4% from the 683.27 million mt produced in 2011.
China produced 427.79 million mt of coke in 2011, up 11.8% year on year, the CCIA said. Of that, output from large and medium-sized steelmakers' subsidiary coking units was around 128 million mt, up 4.6% year on year, according to CCIA figures.
Independent coking companies accounted for about 300 million mt of the output, up 15.1% year on year, CCIA said.
In 2011, China eliminated inefficient coking capacity totaling 19.76 million mt/year. During the year, it brought on stream 48 new and energy-efficient coking batteries which have a combined coking capacity of 26.22 million mt/year, the CCIA said.
In light of the slowdown in growth of global crude steel output, CCIA expects China's coke exports to remain at a low level in the first half of 2012, but may gain some momentum in the second-half of 2012. CCIA, however, expects China's annual coke exports to exceed the 3.3 million mt seen in 2011.
