On November 29, Chinese steelmaker Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation (WISCO) announced the commissioning of a new large-sized coke oven with length of 7 meters. Currently, WISCO has 11 modernized large-sized coke ovens. With the commissioning of the new coke oven, WISCO's annual coke output capacity is foreseen to reach 6.9 million mt, ranking first in China.
The construction of WISCO's newly-commissioned coke oven, which started on December 19 last year, took less than one year, which is shorter than the usual 16-month construction period in the coking industry for similar coke ovens. The total investment in the new coke oven was approximately RMB 399 million ($59.8 million), while it has an annual designed output of 750,000 mt of coke. Accordingly, WISCO will not need to purchase any coke, resulting in savings of at least RMB 1,000 million ($150 million) annually.