Quote:
Originally Posted by Brewmaster
While we don't like the reality of it, the steel we use in almost everything is made using metallurgic coal and there is currently no replacement, unlike thermal coal used for electricity.
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I would put myself in the camp of "in favor of thoughtful development of Alberta's met coal resources." This is actually a good time to do so, because Teck is moving their exports away from the Westshore terminal in BC to a terminal they co-own with Canpotex. That means Westshore is highly motivated to find new sources of export coal - I suspect low terminal costs could be negotiated.
But the quoted portion about no alternatives to met coal just isn't true. Certainly in N. America steel production has been moving from blast furnaces (which use met coal) to electric arc furnaces (which don't). The Chinese haven't made this switch yet.
The reason for that (imo) is largely historical. EAF production has mostly used scrap steel in the past. Our mature economies generate a lot of scrap compared to how much steel we produce. Eg the number of new cars isnt much more than the number of 20 year old cars getting scrapped. Growth in China means they are making way more cars now than in the past, so not much scrap as a ratio to new steel.
But electric arc furnaces can also use direct reduced iron pellets. That hasn't happened much in the past, but its technologically mature, it's just an economic question. And low gas prices and high met coal prices make the production of DRI pellets cheaper (DRI is the same iron ore reduced to iron using nat gas), and electric arc furnaces use tons of electricity which is also made cheaper by cheap natural gas.
So while China has built tons of blast furnaces (that will presumably remain operating for quite some time) there absolutely is a viable substitute for metallurgical coal.