The Ukrainian mining and steel group Metinvest has announced that in January-November this year its coal and coke division's output of dry coke for use in blast furnaces increased by 18 percent year on year to 4.4 million mt, of which 464,220 mt were produced in November - down 2.8 percent month on month.
Specifically, in the first 11 months of this year, Metinvest's Avdiivka Coke Plant saw its coke output increased by 26.4 percent to 2.723 million mt, while Azovstal registered a 6.3 percent growth in its coke production to 1.68 million mt, both compared to the January-November 2010.
In the near future, Metinvest plans to rank among the world's top 10 biggest producers of coking coal and coke. In 2009, Metinvest produced 12 million mt of coking coal and more than four million mt of coke.