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puts it:“ We are deeply involved in the part of steelmaking that recycles steel back into steel. Recycling through the EAF uses graphite electrodes, and that is where we play our role, which matters enormously from a sustainability perspective. By supporting the shift towards EAF production, we are directly contributing to the steel industry’ s ability to recycle steel and reduce the associated carbon emissions at scale.”
That contribution is often underappreciated. Graphite electrodes represent less than two percent of the overall cost of EAF steel production, yet without them the process cannot function and there is no viable alternative to melt steel in EAF. This is what makes GrafTech, in practical terms, a silent enabler of the greener steel transition. The company acts as a critical link in a decarbonization pathway that the US and Europe are already well advanced in pursuing.
Given its strategic importance, the current market dynamics around graphite electrodes are particularly concerning. In order to protect long-term supply of graphite electrodes, the market needs to value this material appropriately, which currently is not the case. Prices for graphite electrodes have been running below sustainable levels for several years, and according to Alexey, the industry is currently at an inflection point.“ As a result, around 100,000 metric tonnes of UHP graphite electrode capacity outside China have been idled or shut down since 2022, leading to current capacity
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