The Chinese characters for 'danger' and 'opportunity' together mean 'crisi' -aptly reflecting the world coke sector's situation for the foreseeable future.

摘要

FOR many years coal n general, and metallurgical (met) cola in particular, was like the late US comedian, Rodney Dangerfield's tagline, "not getting much respect." That had changed dramatically in recent times, so mush so that may producers have been chagrined in their inability to ramp up output to take advantage of remarkable higher prices. Consequently, at the Met Coke World Summit 2004 in Chicago, it was not wholly surprising to hear Andrew Aloe, chief executive of Pittsburgh (US)-based coke-maker Shenango, make his opening statement: "this is the place (the coke market)) where greed meets fear." With the coke supply volating ranged from those from coal and coke producers or buyers to individuals in the steel and rail/seaborne transportation sectors-representing Chinese, Japanese, European, Russian, Indian, and North and South American entities, Appropriate to the driver of the coke/coal market , the following is a conference dim sum.