China's coke output edges down 0.9 pct in first 3 quarters

BEIJING - China's coke output dropped 0.9 percent year on year to 350.86 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The decline narrowed by 1.6 percentage points from the drop in the January-June period.

The profitability of China's coke producers gradually recovered during the same period, the ministry said.

For instance, in China's major coke producing province of Shanxi, the operating revenue of coke producers fell 9.3 percent year on year to 132.93 billion yuan (about $20 billion) in the first three quarters, with the decline narrowing by 6.3 percentage points from that in the first half of 2020.