Semi-Coke (Lan Tan, Low-Temperature Coke)

Low-temperature coke for ferroalloy, calcium carbide and silicon-metal furnaces

Semi-coke is what you get when low-ash, low-sulphur Jurassic coal from northern Shaanxi is carbonised at low temperature instead of in a full coke oven: a porous, reactive carbon that submerged-arc furnaces prefer to metallurgical coke because it reacts faster and carries less ash into the slag. Producers' published sheets run fixed carbon at 84% minimum (83% on the cheaper cut), ash at 8% maximum, sulphur at 0.4–0.5% and volatile matter around 8%, with phosphorus low and a high specific electrical resistance that helps the electrode sink into the burden; the largest ovens in Yulin and Shenmu quote sulphur at 0.3–0.5% and ash at 8–10%. Size is the working variable: 6–18 mm for silicon-metal and ferrosilicon furnaces, 18–30 or 18–35 mm for calcium carbide and silicomanganese, 30–60 mm where the buyer blends it with coke. Shaanxi's Yulin and Shenmu, with the neighbouring producing regions, make around 60% of China's semi-coke, and single producers there run 2.5–3 million MT a year, so the export offer is a by-product of a domestic market many times larger. It is declared under HS 2704 with coke, and China's coke and semi-coke exports ran at about 8.5 million MT in 2024, with Indonesia — home to the world's newest ferronickel and ferroalloy furnaces — the largest destination by value in late 2024, ahead of Japan, Malaysia, Brazil and Australia.

The buyer is a ferroalloy smelter (ferrosilicon, silicomanganese, ferrochrome), a calcium-carbide plant, a silicon-metal producer or a silicon-carbide furnace, and the enquiry is a monthly tonnage in a stated size band with fixed carbon and ash limits, usually to replace part of a coke burden and cut the power and reductant cost per tonne of alloy. Coke, including semi-coke under HS 2704, is on China's Ministry of Commerce list of goods subject to export licence administration, so every Chinese cargo is shipped by a licensed exporter and the licence is part of the document set. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers semi-coke from Shaanxi ovens and licensed Chinese exporters against SGS or Intertek certification of fixed carbon, ash, volatile matter, sulphur, phosphorus, moisture and screened size at the load port, on the smelter's own sheet. Lots are structured in 1 MT jumbo bags in containers for the 100–1,000 MT monthly enquiry and in bulk Handysize or Supramax parcels for the larger smelter, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms; because CBIL also runs a chartering desk (LaycanDesk), the bulk freight leg is quoted alongside the cargo. Send your size band, fixed-carbon floor, ash and sulphur ceilings and monthly tonnage and we will work the oven to them.

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices coal and petcoke bulk freight on LaycanDesk.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.