PARTNER CONTENT
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The complexity of GrafTech’ s core product is matched by the complexity of the supply chain behind it. Alexey Simushkin, Director of Marketing and Market Intelligence, explains what makes graphite electrodes so technically demanding to produce and so strategically significant to the steel industry.“ Graphite electrodes are an essential consumable for EAF steelmaking, which is the process of remelting scrap steel rather than producing steel through the traditional blast furnace route using iron ore and coking coal. Approximately 80 to 90 percent of graphite electrode demand comes from EAF steelmaking, with the remainder coming from ladle furnaces and other ferrous and non-ferrous metal production. The electrode conducts the current that creates the arc to melt the scrap, and it is the only material capable of withstanding temperatures of
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