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GrafTech of approximately 660,000 metric tons. Meanwhile, there are many announcements of new EAF projects being built in the US and Europe, so demand is forecast to grow by around 15 percent by 2030, driven by new and existing furnace projects. The industry is moving from a balanced market towards a potentially significant imbalance, something we have seen before. In 2017 and 2018, prices moved more than ten times within a matter of months because the market became severely imbalanced and producers had already idled or closed capacity.
“ This supply chain is complex and takes time. You cannot turn production back on overnight. If steelmakers continue to treat graphite electrodes as a commodity cost line rather than a strategic input,
history suggests that a market imbalance can lead to significant price dislocation. Prolonged low prices make it very difficult for graphite electrode producers to reinvest and maintain the capacity the industry needs. To address this, we have increased our own R & D investment by more than 140 percent since 2019 precisely because we are committed to the long-term development of this product. At the same time, we are very bullish about the EAF growth and the decarbonization of the steel industry, so we want steelmakers to understand what is at stake in protecting the supply chain that makes all of that possible,” he concludes. ■
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