Ukrainian coke market

摘要

Tougher regulations for coking coal and coke exports from Russia to Ukraine (starting from June it is required to obtain special permissions from Russia's Ministry of Economic Development to supply the material) made Ukrainian consumers raise coal purchases from alternative markets – the USA, Canada, Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Australia. Therefore, the share of Russia in coal imports will drop (in?H1 2019 about 80% of coking coal required for Ukraine was imported, with a half of the volume coming from Russia). Excluding mills on the uncontrolled territory, overall coke production will fall by 3% this year to 9.9 million t;;in 2020, it may rise by 3-5% in case raw material supplies are stable. Mills continue cutting coke usage per one tonne of pig iron production, so despite the expected increase in pig iron output in 2019-2020, coke consumption will drop by 1% this year but may grow by 3-5% next year. It will not be possible to fully cover Ukrainian mills' requirements with domestic production, so imports will stay at about 1-1.1 million tpy.