China's Graphite Electrodes Prices remain Stable ahead of Spring Festival

The GE prices in China continues to remain stable this week amid the upcoming Spring Festival next week. The prevailing offers of UHP grade GE of size 450mm are heard to be at RMB 40,000-45,000/MT (USD 6,235-6,680/MT) and that of 600mm is RMB 72,000-80,000/MT (USD 10,689 -11,877/MT).

The prices of HP grade GE of size 450mm are heard to be at RMB 38,000-42,000/MT (USD 5,640 - 6,235/MT) whereas that of 600mm is at RMB 45,000 - 50,000 (USD 6,680 - 7,423/MT).

The Chinese GE prices that had been registering a fall from mid-Nov'18 with the start of winter heating season (that restricts the steel production in an attempt to control pollution) have turned stable over past three weeks.

According to a market source, due to the upcoming Spring Festival, both upstream and downstream enterprises are ready to enter the holiday state and all enterprises are mainly focusing on de-stocking. The price of graphite electrodes has not changed significantly. However, as steel companies in some regions are still cutting or suspending production, the graphite electrode market is still weak.

According to statistics, in 2018, China's graphite electrode production capacity is about 1.18 MnT, and the output is about 700,000 tonne, an increase of 18.64% Y-o-Y basis. In 2018, the export volume of graphite electrodes reached 287,400 tonne, a Y-o-Y increase of 21.11%. The key GE exporters of China during 2018 were Fangda Carbon, Jilin Carbon, and Kaifeng Carbon.

The supply of needle coke in China continues to remain tight and thus its domestic prices have maintained a stable trend. On the other hand, Phillips 66 which is one of the leading needle coke supplier in the world has increased its prices for China by 24% y-o-y basis for the first half of 2019. The current offers of NC to China by the company are being heard at USD 4,200 - 4,600/MT.