Ukraine reduced coke production by 0.1% in 2M 2021

In January–February 2021, Ukrainian coke companies decreased production of blast-furnace coke by 0.1% to 1.59 million tons compared to the same period of the previous year, according to Interfax-Ukraine citing Ukrkoks association of coke companies.

Members of Ukrkoks association of coke companies produced 755 thousand tons of coke in February.

“February and the recent days demonstrated a slight decline in production volumes. Nevertheless, the demand of steelmaking company is being fully met. Production curtailed a little though,” comments Anatoliy Starovoit, CEO of Ukrkoks.

According to him, both domestic and import sources are now quite sufficient to fully meet the demand of coke plants for coking coals.

In 2M 2021, the following companies cut coke production y-o-y:

• Avdiyivka Coke Plant -8.4% to 450 thousand tons (211 thousand tons produced in February),
• Azovstal -5.3% to 213 thousand tons (101 thousand tons),
• Dniprovskyi Coke Plant -5.1% to 94 thousand tons (44 thousand tons),
• Zaporizhzhia Coke Plant -1.2% to 161 thousand tons (76 thousand tons),
• Kharkiv Coke Plant remains idle,
• Yuzhkoks -1.8% to 112 thousand tons (51 thousand tons).

In January–February, the following two Ukrainian companies boosted coke production:

• Dniprovskyi Coke Plant +46.9% to 94 thousand tons (45 thousand tons produced in February),
• ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih +6.8% to 474 thousand tons (226 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.