China has designated 48 companies to export coke in 2005, the Ministry of Commerce announced in Beijing Monday.

Most of the companies are in Shanxi, China��s main coal-producing province. The others are from Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin municipalities and Jiangsu, Hebei, Gansu, Henan and Shandong provinces.

Chinese market analysts predict that China's 2005 exports of coke will be a little lower than this year's nine million tons.

Due to its high quality and lower prices, they noted, China's coke will continue to dominate the world market in 2005. World coke trade is expected to be less than 24 million tons in 2005, compared with 25 million tons in 2003.

Coke exports were once a major issue that the European Union raised with China. In May this year, China and the EU agreed that China's coke exports to the EU in 2004 would be no less than that in 2003's 4.5 million tons.

Source: Xinhua