Ukrainian coke chemical plants in January-July 2018 increased production of 6% moisture metallurgical coke by 6.1% compared to the same period last year, to 6.311 million tonnes.
The Ukrkoks association (Dnipro) told Interfax-Ukraine some 944,000 tonnes of coke were produced in July.
Ukrkoks Director General Anatoliy Starovoit said coke chemical plants continue to work as normal, providing metallurgical enterprises with coke according to the existing production plans.
“However, in recent days the demand on the part of metallurgists for the supply of coke has decreased: for example, in the last 10-15 days the daily production of gross coke was on average 25,000-26,000 tonnes, while earlier the figure stood at 28,000-29,000 tonnes. Probably, blast furnace operators are repairing the aggregates or for another reason. Coke has not been imported in recent months,” the association said.
At the same time, it is noted that imports of coking coal increased and coking plants are provided with coal in sufficient quantities.
According to preliminary data, in 2018 it is planned to increase pig iron smelting by 12.1% compared to the previous year, to 22.5 million tonnes. This volume of cast iron production requires 11.250 million tonnes of coke (an increase of 8.2% compared to 2017), which, in turn, requires 17.8-17.9 million tonnes of coking coal (an increase of 24.6%).
In 2018, the volume of supplies of coking coals of Ukrainian extraction is expected to be about 3.3 million tonnes, while 14.6 million tonnes is to be imported.
Previously, the plan for 2018 foresaw the volume of pig iron smelting in the amount of 22 million tonnes.
