China coke production fell in September and will hardly grow

According to data from the Bureau of Statistics, domestic coke production in September was 41.44 million mt, down 0.3% MoM, bringing total coke output in the first nine months of 2023 up to 366 million mt, up 11.03 million mt or 3.1% YoY.

With shutdown of Shanxi's 4.3-meter coke oven in October, it is expected that coke production will continue to decline in October. Coking plants have low incentive to produce as they are currently around breakeven point. Therefore, there will be still room for operating rate of coking plants to dip. In addition, production restrictions may lower the operating rate. Under this circumstance, coke output will have little room to grow.