China Coking Industry Association (CCIA) chairman Huang Jingan has stated that, despite the excessive supplies as compared to demand in the current period, many domestic coking enterprises are still enthusiastic about expanding their production.
China has an annual production capacity of 390-400 million mt of coking coal overall while consumption in the current year is expected to reach 280-290 million mt at most, the CCIA chairman said. As a result, China will likely register excess coking coal supplies of 100 million mt in 2009. Furthermore, Mr. Huang went on to say, as the production cuts in foreign countries have been of larger magnitude compared with those in the domestic steel industry, Chinese coking coal exports have dropped significantly. In January-February this year, China exported a total of 100,000 mt of coking coal, down 93.9 percent year on year.
Mr. Huang also recalled that in 2008 China increased its overall coking coal production capacity by 30 million mt, while another 7 million mt of new production capacity is due to come on stream but has been delayed for the moment on account of the economic slump.