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GrafTech
The graphite electrodes we produce are the only commercially available product capable of carrying the electrical current required to melt scrap steel in an electric arc furnace( EAF): there is no substitute
up to 3000 degrees Celsius at the arc point. It is a very complex product that takes six months to manufacture but is consumed in just eight-to-ten hours inside an EAF.
“ Notably, it is the only product in the steelmaking value chain that is derived from decant oil, an oil by-product, which is converted into needle coke, the main raw material for graphite electrode production. There is no viable substitute for needle coke if you want to achieve the UHP quality of electrode for EAF steelmaking, and the same raw material is also used in electric vehicle batteries and battery storage systems, which puts the steel industry in direct competition with the energy and battery sectors for supply. There are only five plants in the world capable of manufacturing needle coke outside of China. One of them is ours, located in Seadrift, Texas, and it is fully dedicated to the production of graphite electrodes, making us vertically integrated in a way that globally very few competitors are,” he reveals.
For GrafTech, being vertically integrated is not just a commercial advantage, rather, it is vital to its role in one of the most important transitions underway in heavy industry. EAF steelmaking generates approximately 75 percent less CO 2 than the traditional blast furnace route, and without graphite electrodes, EAF steelmaking simply cannot happen. As Rodrigo Corbari, Vice President of Sales for the Americas,
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