Eurocoke: war affects the European coke market:

Before the war, there were 14 large coking plants in Ukraine, and most of them are located in the east of Ukraine, where the main fighting and destruction takes place. They produced 19 million tons of coke per year.

“The leading producer is Metinvest’s Avdeevka Coke Plant with a capacity of 4 million tons per year, which is now out of operation due to destruction during hostilities and Russian occupation,” Sobolevsky said at an event with Callanish. “According to the latest data, this year the production of coke in Ukraine will be only about 9.5 million tons per year, which is almost 50% less than last year, or even less.”

Before the war, Ukrainian steelmakers bought 15 million tons of coking coal per year from domestic producers, imported 7 million tons per year from Russia and 4 million tons per year from other countries such as Kazakhstan.

“Today, Ukrainian factories buy only 3.6 million tons per year, which is more than five times less than last year,” he said. “In the city of Kharkov, the largest Ukrainian state enterprise and the institute of the coke industry “Giprokoks” were also destroyed. The loss of such specialists leads to even more negative consequences for the coke industry in Ukraine.”

He adds that the European coke market will have to reorganize due to a shortage of coal and coke from Ukraine.

Last week, the Ukrainian government imposed a ban on coal exports to secure supplies for the heating season, which will affect the operation of steel companies in the country (see Kallanish passim).

The Ukrainian plant Zaporizhkoks, which is part of Metinvest, reduced the production of blast-furnace coke in January-August to 466.7 thousand tons, which is 19.3% less compared to the same period last year due to a shortage of raw materials.

In August, Kazakhstan imposed a ban on coal exports by road for a period of six months starting August 1 (see Kallanish passim).

Prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih (AMKR) purchased 350,000 tons of coking coal per month, with the bulk of supplies coming from ArcelorMittal's steel plant in Temirtau, Kazakhstan. Previously, the plant received 30% of the required coal from Kazakhstan, which was shipped by rail through Russia. This option has now been removed.