Smithers
 

1.    The steel market has seen many challenges emerge over the past 18 months, here is an overview: 
Impact of high inflation, high energy prices and high interest rates on steel producers and steel demand.
Challenges for steelmakers in terms of poor margin, high raw material costs ( coke, coking coal and iron ore)
The challenge of increased volume of competitive Chinese steel exports. How is this affecting steel mills in Asia and beyond?
2.    Coking coal supply continues to lag demand for coke/coking coal. 
When will the supply-demand balance ‘normalise’  and when can we expect prices to normalise?
Australian supply performance has been the major culprit – what is the supply outlook in terms of recovery of existing supply as well as new projects? 
What impact is ESG having on coking coal supply?
Why is Russian supply pulling out of the market?
When will the domestic Chinese market balance loosen?
3.    Disruption and evolution await the global coke market.
Challenging market conditions will continue in 2024/25 for Coke makers -  discussion of CRU’s market outlook for the merchant coke market in terms of price, trade and capacity. 
Expanding coke capacity in Indonesia threatens to disrupt seaborne coke trade – how fast will this change be and what will be the impact?
Banmeet Khurmi | Senior Analyst – Metallurgical Coal & Coke, CRU Group

• “green steel” before 2050 – is it realistic?
• feedstock – production of coking coal in Europe
• present coke capacity in EU countries
• environmental regulations – permits for new battery construction
• BAT Conclusions : new emission limits – higher costs
• “Green deal” – influence for coke production operating costs
• workers – how to find new young cokemakers?
• bio-coke – interesting option for next 20 years 
• cost of production (CAPEX, OPEX) vs predicted market prices of coke up to 2040

Aleksander Sobolewski | Director, Institute of Energy and Fuel Processing Technology

• Historical seaborne met coal prices, what has changed and how it impacts our near and long-term price forecast 
• China has historically set the price for seaborne premium hard-coking coal. How has this dynamic changed with India emerging as the new seaborne price setter. 
• Near-term implications for global metallurgical coal demand and supply. 
• Global steel and metallurgical coal demand to 2050. The increase of DRI and scrap and what it means for demand. Efficiency-led reductions in coke rates and when we see hydrogen making an impact. 
• Highlight the most important demand and supply countries for met coal to 2050. Which demand countries are on the rise and where will the metallurgical coal come from? 
• Operating and capital costs, project development across major suppliers, deal implied and breakeven prices and what it ultimately means for our long term price forecast. 

Min Li (Jenny) | Senior Coal Market Analyst, Wood Mackenzie

• Global metcoal trade review 
• Dry bulk shipping fleet growth review & outlook
• Global economic outlook and recent geopolitical issues' impact on metcoal trade and freight

Pranay Shukla | Director, S&P Global Commodity Insights

• Problems of conventional coal-selecting and coal
• blending techniques 
• Basic concept of the novel technology; “Advance MOF diagram system” 
• “Permeation distance” measurements especially for evaluating high MF coals 
• “Surface tension” measurements especially for evaluating low MF coals 
• “Chemically accelerated test (CAT)” especially for evaluating non-caking coals

Yusuke Dohi | Senior Researcher, Steel Research Laboratory at JFE Steel

Wenlin Xue | General Manager, Shanxi Today Think Tank Energy Co., Ltd

Based on a systematic study of tuyere coke  of a super large blast furnace , it is proved that the alkali load of the blast furnace, the ratio of anisotropy to isotropy microstructure composition, and the MBI index of coke have a significant impact on the smelting behavior of coke in the blast furnace. It is recommended to consider the smelting environment inside the furnace (such as alkali load) when evaluating the performance of coke; To some extent, a little more anisotropic components in the microstructure of coke is good for its behavior in furnace. Isotropic components are of great significance for coke to resist alkali metal accelerated carbon dissolution reactions; The ash content of coke has a significant impact on its thermal strength and blast furnace operation. For the improvement of coke quality, it is recommended to appropriately increase the content of isotropic components in coke, while focusing on the oxide content of iron, calcium, and magnesium. Finally, the reliability of the above conclusion is confirmed by the actual effect of improving the production indicators of the super large blast furnace.
Dongtao Li | Senior Engineer, Shougang Research Institute of Technology

In-depth exploration of the coking mechanism of coking coal is the theoretical basis for scientific evaluation of coal quality characteristics, directional control of the coking process,
 development of refined coal blending and coking technology, and customized production of high-quality coke.
 
Meijun Wang | Professor, Taiyuan University of Technology

The role of coke plant in an integrated steel mill is yet dominant from the point of view of fulfilling fuel requirements of blast furnace and downstream mills. Despite the sustained call for actions by environmentalists to move towards green steel making by minimizing usage of coke, the trend still persists in favour coke dependant iron making, may be for another few decades! Bhilai Steel Plant is the flagship of Steel Authority of India Limited, an ISP with a capacity of 7.0 MTPA. Coke is conveyed to blast furnaces from the coke plant comprising 4.0 mt tall and 7.0 mt tall batteries. The wet quenched coke is transported to blast furnaces through interplant conveyor galleries with more than 30 drops en route. 
While this has been the standard material conveying system in vogue, on one occasion, a critical conveyor in the network failed, thus crippling the coke offtake to major hot metal producing furnaces. Due to sudden haulting of coke transport, coke production also suffered a setback. To avoid a major collapse in entire plant performance, it was decided to make use of ore transfer car running at blast furnace high lines to deliver coke. With interplant coordination, this innovative method was approved after a mini demonstration onsite. With no investment, this mode of coke transport still serves as an alternate and sustainable coke route since last 25 years enabling timely compliance of shutdown and maintenance requirements of major and critical conveyors without affecting either coke plant or blast furnace. 
G.S. Venkata Subramanian | Ex-General Manager, BHILAI STEEL PLANT, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)

• Coal applications need to be reevaluated to account for environmental concerns 
• Hydrogen will be the predominant reducing agent in steel making 
• Coal liquefaction as a sustainable alternative for hydrogen generation

Saeid Kamalpour | Founder of GlobInK & Technical Engineer at North American Stainless, Acerinox Group

By 2052, more than 40% of global steel production will still rely on met coke. Therefore, it is more than paramount to determine ways to decarbonize coke production. One of the ways to do so is through finding substitute materials to replace coal in the feed to the coke ovens. A lot of effort has been put in this regard in various countries, and some of the major studied materials include plastic waste, wood and wood residues, heavy tar and oil. Nevertheless, there is a lot of potential for using sugarcane by-products, such as in Brazil and India. In Brazil, most of the applications include dealing with bagasse, molasses, and straw for power generation, or simply burning the residue due to the lack of application. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview on the various substitute materials, the latest achievements and investigations, and what the entanglements are to introduce these materials in industrial scale, so as to effectively decarbonize met coke production further. One process step that can help in introducing such materials is stamp charging, which will be used in industrial-scale testing to provide further information on the use of sugarcane by-products for that purpose. 
•    Plastics are used in few plants, at the rate of 1% w/w; Heavy tar and oil are used in some plants; 
•    Wood has been tested in pilot-plant scale; 
•    Sugar cane has a lot of potential as a substitute material.

thyssenkrupp Uhde Brasil Ltda.
Douglas Richter | Process and Sales Engineer , thyssenkrupp Uhde

• Green production and the involvement of each country in Asia
• India and China's effort on green production and the challenges we are facing
• Green Steel opportunities in Asia
   

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