In 2010 26 million mt of dated or backward coke output capacities will be eliminated in China, but the Chinese coke industry still faces an overcapacity problem. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on August 8 published a list of the enterprises in 18 industries which have to eliminate backward capacities. 192 of these enterprises operate in the coke industry and have a total output capacity of 26 million mt or seven percent of total Chinese coke output capacity.
Some of the enterprises concerned are reported to have completed the elimination of their backward capacities, while others are still in the process of doing so. As the MIIT has stated, enterprises on the list need to complete the elimination of backward capacities by the end of September this year.
In its 11th five-year plan period (2006-2010), China planned to eliminate 80 million mt of backward capacity in the coke industry, whereas so far 82.54 million mt have been eliminated. Nevertheless, by the end of 2009 Chinese domestic coke output capacity was 400 million mt. Huang Jingan, director of the China Coking Industry Association (CCIA) said that in 2010 Chinese demand for coke is expected to be 280-290 million mt, which means that there will be an excess coke output capacity of at least 100 million mt for the current year.