What's happening in China's Needle Coke and Graphite Electrodes Market?

Amid the Coronavirus crisis in China, the country's graphite electrodes and needle coke (NC) producers are struggling to get back on track.

SteelMint has heard from its market sources that the needle coke prices in the country have turned stable as the current market is in the process of slow recovery. About 40% of the NC manufacturers have resumed their work and demand from the electrodes segment is not very high.

Needle coke

This week, petroleum-based needle coke market price is RMB 10,500/MT in Shanxi region, unchanged from last week. The mainstream price is stable in the range of RMB 10,000-11,000/MT. A manufacturer said that the factory's production in March will have limited production but is expected to return to normal in April. Industry participants have confidence in the future market and an increase in needle coke prices in the future is anticipated.

As per the market sources, Baoshan Technology's needle coke project with a capacity of 50,000 tonne, has officially begun production in the month of March. It is understood that the company's planned capacity utilization rate is about 60% this month.

Another key company, Baotailong New Energy Co. Ltd, a major needle coke manufacturer also resumed its operations recently. The company had shut down its operations since 20 January for the Spring Festival Holiday in the country. The company majorly supplies electrodes to GE producers in North China.

Graphite electrodes

In case of GE, China's electrodes prices have remained stable against last week. The prices for 600mm are in the range of RMB 27,000 - 28,000/MT and that of high power is in the range of RMB 11,000-13,000/MT.

EAF mills performance

China's daily production of crude steel gained slightly during the first ten days of this month, reserving the continuous slide witnessed over the prior two months, according to Mysteel's latest survey among 247 blast-furnace and 71 electric-arc-furnace steel producers released on 11 March. The slight rebound indicated that domestic steel mills were not willing to cut their production further after noting signs of improving demand from steel users, thus supporting the GE prices also.

Some EAF steel producers in Southwest and East China also resumed operations recently, thanks to policy support of local governments. The capacity utilization rate of the 53 independent EAF steelmakers across China which Mysteel monitors weekly rebounded by 3.91% on week to a two-month high of 7.61% over February 28-March 5.