Coking firm China Risun Group foresees steady coke demand across the world by 2025, underpinned by Asian requirement.

The firm’s deputy general manager, Jiao Yong, said at Kallanish Asia Steel Markets 2024 in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday that there will be 36 million tonnes of new coke demand by 2025. This is because by 2025, there will be an estimated 90mt of new blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) crude steel capacity worldwide versus 2022.

According to him, 32mt of the coke demand will come from Asia as there will be 77.9mt of new BF-BOF crude steel capacity in the region.

ASEAN and India are becoming the main regions for increased coke consumption as steel production here is accelerating, Jiao said. He also sees Europe, the US, Japan and Australia are increasing their dependence on imported coke.

Overall, crude steel demand is moving from the West to the East, meaning met coke consumption in the East outnumbers the West.

According to Jiao, Asia is the centre of steel production, contributing 73.6% of global crude steel production in 2023, up 3.5 percentage points on five years ago and 5.6pp higher than ten years ago. The EU, on the other hand, has seen its share fall from 9.3% in 2013 to 6.8% in 2023.

Meanwhile, China Risun Group plans to produce 17.2mt of coke this year, including 2-3mt in Indonesia. In 2024, its coking capacity is expected to reach 22.8m t/year.