Ukraine increased coke production by 2.2% in January

In January 2021, Ukrainian coke companies decreased production of blast-furnace coke by 2.2% to 845 thousand tons compared to January 2020, according to Interfax-Ukraine citing Ukrkoks association of coke companies.

“January showed a little increase in coke production as a result of growing demand among steelmaking companies. The number of orders increased only a little, while demand hiked up. At the same time, there’s a concern that given sharp increase in demand, coke companies might fail to fulfill all the orders on time, as coke batteries need a repair — they should have been relined earlier,” says  Anatoliy Starovoit, CEO of Ukrkoks.

According to him, 29% of the total volume of coal supplied in January had domestic origin while 71% was imported.

In January 2021, the following companies cut coke production compared to January 2020:

• Avdiyivka Coke Plant — by 6.3% to 239 thousand tons (241 thousand tons produced in 2019);
• Azovstal — by 3.4% to 112 thousand tons (115 thousand tons);
• Dniprovskyi Coke Plant — by 3.9% to 49 thousand tons (50 thousand tons);
• Zaporizhzhia Coke Plant — by 2.3% to 84 thousand tons (83 thousand tons);
• Kharkiv Coke Plant — idle.

In January, the following three Ukrainian companies boosted coke production:

• Dniprovskyi Coke Plant — by 85.2% to 50 thousand tons (27 thousand tons produced in 2019);
• ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih — by 7.3% to 249 thousand tons (246 thousand tons);
• Yuzhkoks — by 5% to 63 thousand tons (61 thousand tons).

In 2020, Ukrainian coke plants cut production of blast-furnace coke with 6% moisture content by 3.9% against 2019, down to 9.66 million tons.