Coking coal 

Our coking coal is known for its quality and has a low sulphur content. Its main use is in the production of coke as one of the inputs for steel furnaces and foundries. It is generally more expensive than thermal coal.

Based on the coking properties the coking coal can be divided into two groups:

  • semi-soft coking coal (also known as SSCC)
  • hard coking coal (also known as HCC)

Hard coking coal has better coking properties than semi-soft coking coal. The Australian hard coking coal is being regarded as the benchmark for quality.

In 2011 NWR produced 11.2 million tonnes of coal, with coking coal sales volumes accounting for 4.4 million tonnes of total external sales.

Given the ultimate consumer of PCI coking coal is the steel making industry, we started to classify its sales as coking coal as of 1 January 2012, in line with industry practice.

Within the NWR group, quality coking coal is produced by Czech coal mines operated by OKD, namely:

NWR coking coal customers 2011 by sales volumes

 Coking Coal Sales white    ArcelorMittal 34%
   U.S. Steel Košice 27%
   voestalpine 19%
   Novscom 8%
   Moravia Steel 7%
   Other 5%