As India is targeting steel capacity of 200 million tonnes (mt) by 2020, a major concern staring in the face of steelmakers is how to secure sustainable supply of coking coal.

Sustaining coke supply a worry for steel firms

Business Standard

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the principal contributor to global warming. With world steel production at 1.42 billion tonnes (bt) in 2010 and output of 116 bt till November 2011, it is natural that this industry will be counted among the major contributors of CO2 emissions. We are told that CO2 accounts for almost close to 100 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in the process of steel making, including intermediate products like power, pellets and coke but excluding extraction of iron ore. Since 2006 when global steel output was 1.25 bt, the industry&rsquo;s CO2 emission has risen from 2 bt to 2.5 bt.

Steel's carbon dioxide emission burden

The message came loud and clear from Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia that a power intensive industry like aluminium will do well to be sharply focussed on process improvements to economise on energy consumption per unit of metal smelted.

Aluminium's energy nightmare 

For its size and multi-country production facilities, frequent technology updates and a balance sheet making it a &ldquo;confident company in a nervous world,&rdquo; Alcoa of the US is seen as bellwether of the world aluminium industry. Therefore, when Alcoa reported a loss in the final quarter of 2011, the first since 2009 second quarter, due to wilting demand from packaging to construction to automobile sectors, our expectation of working of local aluminium makers during October-December period gets adequately moderated.

Fluctuations in world aluminium capacity

India, which continues to surprise the world with its appetite for gold jewellery, saw demand for the adornment slipping 26 per cent to 125.3 tonnes in the third quarter of 2011. Even then, the managing director of Gitanjali Gems Mehul Choksi said in an interview with Reuters that last year closed with Indian gold jewellery demand rising between five and seven per cent.

Kunal Bose

Kunal Bose

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Sustaining coke supply a worry for steel firms

Steel's carbon dioxide emission burden

Aluminium's energy nightmare

Fluctuations in world aluminium capacity

Jewellery demand and gold prices: A correlation