In the first half of 2021, the market of graphite electrode will continue to rise. By the end of June, the domestic φ300-φ500 ordinary power graphite electrode mainstream market quoted price of 16000-17500 CNY/ton, increasing the total amount of 6000-7000 CNY/ton; φ300-φ500 high power graphite electrode mainstream market quotation 18000-12000 CNY/ton, the increase of accumulated 7000-8000 CNY/ton.
According to investigation, the rise of graphite electrode mainly has the following aspects:
First, the continuous rise of raw material prices;
Second, Inner Mongolia, gansu and other regions in March power brownouts, graphite chemical industry limited, many manufacturers can only to Shanxi Province and other regions for processing, parts need graphitization foundry electrode factory output has slowed as a result, UHP550mm and the following specifications supply of goods on the market is still tight, prices strong, gains more apparent, normal, high power graphite electrode, and inflation;
Third, mainstream graphite electrode manufacturers are short of inventory, and orders have been ordered until mid-to-late May.
Market:
According to the feedback from some electrode manufacturers, in the past, a certain amount of raw materials would be purchased in the same period around December due to the Spring Festival. However, in 2020, due to the rising price of raw materials in December, manufacturers mainly waited and watched, so the raw material inventory in 2021 is insufficient, and some manufacturers will use it until after the Spring Festival. From the beginning of 2021, due to the impact of public health events, most of the processing and related enterprises in the largest graphite electrode machine processing and production base in China have stopped production, and the impact of road closures has caused transportation difficulties.
At the same time, from January to March, Inner Mongolia energy efficiency double control and gansu and other areas of power restriction, graphite electrode graphite chemical sequence appeared a serious bottleneck, until mid-April or so, the local graphitization start slightly improved, but the production capacity release is only 50-70%, as we all know, Inner Mongolia is China’s graphitization concentration, The number of finished products released by the graphite electrode manufacturer in the later stage of the double control and half process still has some influence. In April, due to the impact of centralized maintenance of raw materials and high delivery costs, the mainstream electrode manufacturers significantly increased their product prices for two consecutive times in early and middle and late April, and the third and fourth echelon manufacturers slowly kept up with them in late April. Although the actual transaction prices were still somewhat preferential, the gap has narrowed.
Until daqing petroleum coke appeared “four consecutive drop”, which caused a lot of hot discussion in the market, everyone’s mentality also began to change a little. Some graphite electrode manufacturers in mid-late May when the tender found that individual manufacturers of graphite electrode prices slightly loose. But because domestic needle coke price stability, and overseas focal late supply will be tight, so many leading graphite electrode factory think prices will continue to maintain the status quo or late electrode fluctuated slightly high price of raw materials, after all, it is on the production line production, electrode will still be affected by cost price falls in the near future is unlikely.
Post time: Jul-23-2021