The coking industry has entered a period of deep adjustment
On April 10th, the third enlarged meeting of the eighth council of the China Coking Association was held in Jinan, Shandong Province. Experts attending the meeting pointed out that the coking industry has entered a period of deep adjustment. The demand for coke will continue to decline in 2025. The industry must keep making efforts in ultra-low emission transformation, standardization construction, and digital and intelligent transformation to deal with the phased predicament.
China's coking industry has been constantly taking new steps in implementing national industrial policies and technological innovation. Song Zhishun, the chairman of Shandong Metallurgical Design Institute Co., LTD., said that in recent years, the coking industry has achieved remarkable results in energy conservation and emission reduction. Ultra-low emission renovations have covered key regions and been promoted nationwide. The production capacity structure of enterprises has been continuously optimized, and the industry concentration has significantly increased. The large-scale application of technologies for methanol production from coke oven gas, deep processing of natural gas and coal tar has driven the industry to extend from single coking coal production to high-value-added chemical products, writing a new chapter in the high-quality development of the coking industry.
However, the coking industry still faces the challenge of imbalance between supply and demand. Shi Yanfeng, the president of the China Coking Coal Association, pointed out that in the past two years, the coking industry has gradually entered a period of deep adjustment. The downstream demand for coke has continued to decline, and the decline in coking coal prices has been lower than that of coke product prices. The loss-making area of the industry has continued to expand. The coking industry has gradually moved from the "incremental development" stage to the "stock optimization" stage. There may be a phenomenon of market-based elimination of coking capacity in the near future.
The current principal contradiction is that the supply capacity of coke is abundant while the demand intensity is weakening. A new dynamic balance mechanism between supply and demand has not yet been established. It is very difficult to stabilize operation and increase efficiency. The time for eliminating inefficient production capacity is uncertain. The construction of a new dynamic balance mechanism between supply and demand will take a relatively long time. Shi Yanfeng said that in 2025, it is expected that the downstream demand for steel will continue to decline, and the demand for coke will also continue to fall. Moreover, as the amount of scrap steel used increases, the rate of decline in coke demand will be greater than that in steel demand.
In this regard, Shi Yanfeng pointed out that the coking industry is now at a historical juncture of green transformation and high-quality development. It is necessary to take industry self-discipline as the foundation, technological innovation as the wings, and industrial chain collaboration as the veins to jointly build a more resilient and sustainable industrial ecosystem.
Specifically, first of all, it is necessary to enhance industry self-discipline. This can be achieved by establishing a new product standard system, promoting the establishment of a new dynamic balance between supply and demand, and guiding the orderly exit of inefficient production capacity through market-oriented and law-based means to curb disorderly competition. Secondly, it is necessary to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the coking industry, actively respond to the national call, and take the ultra-low emission transformation as an important task for the industry's transformation and upgrading. At the same time, it is also necessary to promote the integrated development of the industrial chain, break down the technical barriers between upstream and downstream through standardization construction, and establish a collaborative mechanism of "quality orientation and value coexistence".
Shi Yanfeng mentioned that it is necessary to continuously promote the data-driven collaborative transformation of the entire industrial chain, develop informationization and intelligent technologies for coking process flows, enhance the level of intelligent manufacturing, give full play to the role of professional committees and expert committees, systematically sort out coking process parameters, and provide a solid guarantee for the intelligentization of coking. In addition, it is necessary to promote new models of professional technical services and professional personnel training. Relying on the high-end technical teams of design institutes and research institutions, a collaborative platform for "technical services + talent incubation" among industry, academia and research is established to solve the dual predicament of technological upgrading and talent shortage in production enterprises.
The meeting deliberated and approved the proposal on admitting six units including Shanxi Huaxin Coal Coking Chemical Industry Group Co., Ltd. as members and the work report of the third council and supervisory board of the eighth term of the China Coking Industry Association.