Steel Product Producers

GrafTech attempts to lift electrode prices as its losses mount

Written by Laura Miller

February 7, 2025

GrafTech International Ltd.

Fourth quarter ended Dec.3120242023Change
Net sales$134.2$137.1-2.1%
Net income (loss)($49.5)($217.4)77.2%
Per diluted share($0.19)($0.85)77.6%
Full year ended Dec.31
Net sales$538.8$620.5-13.2%
Net income (loss)($131.2)($255.3)48.6%
Per diluted share($0.51)($0.99)48.5%
(in millions of dollars except per share)

In the face of weak demand and an “unsustainably low” pricing environment, GrafTech International posted another quarterly loss to close out 2024.

President and CEO Timothy Flanagan highlighted in the latest earnings report that the company continues executing its plan to regain market share.

Its sales volumes of 103,200 metric tons showed a 13% rise year over year. And despite industry-wide headwinds, GrafTech expects “a low double-digit percentage point year-over-year increase” in volumes again this year.

Still, the Brooklyn, Ohio-based graphite electrode producer hasn’t posted a profit since the fourth quarter of 2022. It’s been struggling since it was forced to close its Monterrey, Mexico, facility from September to November of that year. Former CEO Marcel Kessler also stepped down in November 2022; previously CFO, Flanagan has led the company since.

GrafTech is taking measures to improve its order book, he said. An example is a shift in its geographic mix to regions with a better chance of achieving higher average selling prices.

Additionally, the company is increasing its prices by 15% on volumes not yet committed for 2025, said Flanagan.

With geopolitical and economic uncertainty continuing to constrain global steel production, GrafTech expects electrode demand to remain flat in its key regions.

It also repeated what it’s said in previous earnings reports: “Longer term, we remain confident that the steel industry’s efforts to decarbonize will lead to increased adoption of the electric-arc furnace method of steelmaking, driving long-term demand growth for graphite electrodes.”

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held a variety of positions within the steel industry since 2007, including reporting and editing for Steel Business Briefing/Platts, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, and Kallanish Commodities, as well as marketing for what was then known as ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (now AM/NS Calvert). After a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel in 2021 and has covered the flat rolled, tubular, and trade areas of the industry. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.

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