China’s coking industry is likely to see slower growth a the rate of output and sales in 2012 on the slowing worldwide economy and slack demand from the steel industry, says the China Coking Industry Association.
The Association forecasts that China’s apparent consumption of crude steel may exceed 700Mt in 2012 with a growth of 4% year-on-year, compared to the 6.4% growth in 2011.
The domestic demand for coke is expected to rise 3% y-o-y to 440-450Mt in 2012. Meanwhile. Coke exports are expected to remain at a low level in the first half of 2012 affected by gloomy economic condition and slowing steel production, but are likely to resume growth in the second half 2012. However, total coke exports from China are unlikely to see a significant increase as a number of new coking facilities have entered operation abroad.