Speaking during the annual Met Coke World Summit, which is being held today and Thursday in Chicago, Ill., USA, Andrade said it will be imperative to develop repair processes and technologies that are effective, fast and reliable.

He also said that he doesn’t foresee any near-term technological breakthroughs in terms of cokemaking equipment as the investment dollars needed to take the equipment to the next level have largely dried up.  However, he said he believes coke itself will evolve.

“There is an advent of analytical techniques and modeling capabilities helping us to measure analyze and understand aspects of coke making and coke structure at an advanced level. Better understanding will allow us to produce coke able to meet the requirements of the next generation of blast furnace performance levels,” he said.