Global demand for pulverized coal or PCI is expected to almost double to 95 million mt/year by 2025 from 50 million mt/year currently, according to a presentation by Jorge Caldeira, Australian coal miner Jellinbah's technical marketing manager, at the Coaltrans Brazil conference in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.
In the slides offered as part of the presentation, he attributed the surge in demand to an increase in pulverized coal injection capacity at existing furnaces, increased injection rates as well as plans for new blast furnaces to be built, Caldeira said.
Using PCI could lead to a substantial saving in steel production costs, he said. Mills could save up to $79 million/year should they use low vol PCI in their coal blends, he explained. This assessment was based on a typical 5 million mt/year Brazilian steel plant with a PCI injection rate of 150 kg/mt of hot metal. Current industry best for PCI rates was around 200 kg/mt of hot metal along with 285 kg/mt of metallurgical coke, Caldeira said.
Low vol PCI accounts for close to 58% of seaborne PCI trade in 2012 at 29 million mt/year. Jellinbah expects the volume traded to surge to 45 million mt/year in 2025, Platts calculates based on the data provided in Caldeira's presentation.
PCI exports from Queensland, Australia, where Jellinbah is located, are expected to account for almost half of the world's demand at 23 million mt/year in 2012, he said, adding that total PCI demand in 2012 is seen at 50 million mt.
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