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SunCoke Energy on Track for November Start-up in Middletown
10/06/2011 - SunCoke Energy, Inc. reaffirmed that start-up plans are on track for its new Middletown, Ohio, metallurgical cokemaking facility.
In an update this week on the company’s business, SunCoke Energy, Inc. reaffirmed that start-up plans are on track for its new Middletown, Ohio, metallurgical cokemaking facility.
The company anticipates that it will begin heating its cokemaking ovens in mid-October, with the ovens expected to be fully heated up within about two weeks. The company plans to initiate metallurgical coke production for AK Steel by November 1, 2011.
SunCoke expects the start-up of its Middletown facility to increase the company’s total U.S. cokemaking production capacity by some 550,000 tons to approximately 4.2 million tons per year.
In the near term, SunCoke is estimating that total U.S. coke production will increase to 960,000 tons in the third quarter 2011, driven by improved production at Indiana Harbor. The total, which comprises 177,000 tons from Jewell Coke and 783,000 tons from other domestic coke, compares to total coke production of 922,000 tons in the previous quarter and 953,000 tons in the year-ago third quarter.
The company also announced its acquisition of the entire 19% ownership interest in the partnership that owns the Indiana Harbor cokemaking facility held by SFG IHCC LLC, an affiliate of GE Capital, for $34 million effective September 30, 2011. As a result of this transaction, SunCoke now holds an 85% interest in the partnership. The remaining 15% interest in the earnings of the partnership is owned by an affiliate of DTE Energy Company.
The company noted it plans to report third quarter 2011 financial results on Wednesday, November 2, 2011.
SunCoke Energy, Inc. is the largest independent producer of metallurgical coke in the Americas, with more than 45 years of experience supplying coke to the integrated steel industry. The company’s heat recovery cokemaking process produces high-quality coke for use in steelmaking, captures waste heat for derivative energy resale, and meets or exceeds environmental standards. The company’s cokemaking facilities are located in Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Vitoria, Brazil, and its coal mining operations, which have more than 100 million tons of proven and probable reserves, are located in Virginia and West Virginia.
