Ukraine decreased coke production by 10% in November

In November, Ukrainian coke plants decreased coke production by 10.4% to 727 thousand tons y-o-y, according to Interfax-Ukraine citing the updated statistics of Ukrkoks association of coke producing companies.

Coke production fell by 1.5% compared to October.

“In November and December, domestic coke companies demonstrated more or less the same output. Certain fluctuations in production results take place when batteries are replaced, but those are insignificant,” says Anatoliy Starovoit, CEO of Ukrkoks.

In January–November, coke production fell by 1% to 8.731 million tons y-o-y.

In 11M, the following coke plants shrank production volumes:

• Avdiyivka Coke Plant — by 9.7% to 2.417 million tons (against 11M 2020);
• Azovstal — by 9.8% to 1.111 million tons;
• Dniprovskyi Coke Plant — by 6.3% to 505 thousand tons;
• Zaporizhzhia Coke Plant — by 0.8% to 887 thousand tons.

Over the period from January to November, Dniprokoks increased production by 10.7% to 526 thousand tons, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih by 10% to 2.640 million tons, and Yuzhkoks by 7.7% to 645 thousand tons. Kharkiv Coke Plant remained idle.

As reported earlier, raw material supplies to Ukrainian coke plants decreased by 15% in September. The lack of coke caused Ukrainian steelmakers to suspend some blast furnaces and cut pig iron and steel outputs in September.

According to Anatoliy Starovoit, reduction in supplies of coking coal is caused by the global energy crisis. The record-breaking growth in gas prices has triggered a boost in demand for power-generating coals. This, in turn, has affected logistics of sales of coking coals.

In 2020, Ukrainian coke plants cut coke production by 3.9% to 9.66 million tons y-o-y.