OREANDA-NEWS. October 29, 2015. As conferences go, this US event may be the most cerebral in the steel raw materials calendar.

At the annual Met Coke World Summit in Pittsburgh this week, some of the presentations maybe far too technical for the commercial attendees and market analysts gathered for the largest metallurgical coke event worldwide.

At Smithers’ tightly managed series, with its European counterpart held every spring, papers from leading coke proponents worldwide share new advancements, with handpicked analysts serving up views before a critical audience. Futurists are well catered to. Long-range scenario planning-like discussions feature.

The presentations provide a rare chance to learn and gain expertise from technicians and others at the forefront of optimizing inputs into the blast furnace, without first gaining a doctorate and joining a major steel group like ThyssenKrupp or Erdemir.

But what the industry is urgently looking for is better steel demand; the lower costs and efficiencies these advancements could promise may help survival, but every steel executive is searching for drivers to boost volumes and prices as well as signs the cycle will shift upward.

Using even more PCI to reduce coke use, and with it coking coal demand, may less appeal with the Appalachian industry gripped over the next mine shutdown and competing harder than ever before to move domestic coking coal tons.

Technicians and furnace operators may have tweaked coke blends towards optimum value in use coals with the best logistics.

With steel prices depressed, and coke, met coal and iron ore prices low, this event cannot escape the funk grabbing the headlines for all the wrong reasons, just as participants faced earlier this month at Coaltrans in Barcelona.

Demand for US coke is looking weaker on idling North American blast furnaces and lower capacity utilization.

Take-or-pay agreements under long-term supply deals with mills may help tide coke producers’ finances over, but the repercussion is lower met coal demand. In the short term, that may mean lower prices before a likely forced further adjustment in supply.

For now, the macro focus will lead the micro. The long-range outlook discussions are, therefore, crucial.