Iran's Graphite Electrode Import from India Hit All Time High in Dec'18

During Aug'18 sanctions, India halted export of GE to Iran, but in Dec'18, Iran imported around 2,000 MT GE which hit all-time high in CY'18.

Iran, one of the largest steel producer in MENA is has imported 109,331 MT graphite during CY'18 (Jan-Dec'18). As per the data released by Iran customs department, the import of GE witnessed a growth of 25% Y-o-Y against 87,480 MT imported during CY'17.

Many graphite electrode exporters have resumed their export to Iran after almost a halt of 2-3 months. China was the major exporter of GE to Iran, the nation exported around 79,671 MT GE to Iran during CY'18 (Jan-Dec'18) by registering a growth of 25% Y-o-Y.

Iran accounted 73% of its GE from China and 10% each from India and Germany. The nation imported 11,089 MT GE from Germany during CY'18 by registering a growth of 120% Y-o-Y against 5,059 MT imported in CY'17.

India was the third largest supplier of GE to Iran. The nation imported 10,647 MT from India in CY'18. During Aug'18 sanctions, India had halted export of GE to Iran, but in Dec'18, Iran imported around 2,000 MT GE which was the all time high quantity of GE imported from India in CY'18.

Other major suppliers to Iran during the period were Spain (3,189 MT), Japan (2,269 MT) and UAE (1,420 MT).

According to Mr. Keyvan Jafari Tehrani, owner of JTC Company Iran, "Currently Iranian steelmakers are preferring China's FANGDA graphite electrodes along with other Chinese origin GE. However, there is a good scope for Indian origin GE in Iran. It is believed that the increase of Indian GE in Iran will proportionally reduce the GE imports from China to some level, as a lot of local Iranian steelmakers prefer to use Chinese GE."

He added, "Iranian steelmakers look to have barter trade with India, they are looking on the possibilities of exporting their raw materials and steel products to India against the GE import from India."