Remember the days (pre-2004) when the talk was that coke-based blast furnaces would soon be replaced with new, modern electric arc furnaces? At that time U.S. steel industry consolidation was moving at a snail's pace, steel companies were declaring bankruptcy on an epidemic scale and there was a perception that the global steel market was vastly over-supplied with steel products. It was a difficult, uncertain time for both steel and met coal producers. Then 2004 arrived and the world changed -- for the better.
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