Met coal consumption expected to decline in Belgium

摘要

Met coal consumption may soon decline in Belgium. Arcelor Mittal, which owns Cockerill Sombre, is in the process of shutting down two blast furnaces there. Production costs at Cockerill Sombre are higher than at another Belgian steelmaker, Sidmar, which is also owned by Arcelor Mittal. At its high point, Cockerill Sombre was consuming about 2.3 million tonnes/year of imported met coal and just over 0.550 million tonnes/year of PCI coal. With the imminent shut downs in the works, Cockerill Sombre is expected to purchase less than 1.0 million tonnes of hard met coal in 2007 and only a marginal amount of PCI coal. Probably next year, Cockerill Sambre's imported coal requirement will be practically zero.