The China domestic graphite electrode market is generally stable this week, and the situation of low-priced delivery in the market is gradually decreasing, and the bargaining space is not as much as in the previous period. It is reported that due to the impact of the Winter Olympics, steel mills in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have generally reduced production, ranging from 30 to 40%. Blast furnaces, converters, and electric furnaces are involved. This reduction in production is initially expected to affect till the Spring Festival next year. Prior to this, electrode processing companies in Hebei also had to stop production due to poor market conditions. In addition, many mainstream electrode manufacturers have reduced production since August, and it is expected that the later market will also decrease.

As of September 9th, the mainstream price of UHP450mm with 30% needle coke content on the market is 17500-18000 yuan/ton, UHP600mm is 21,000-23,000 yuan/ton, and the price of UHP700mm is 27000-28,000 yuan/ton. A decrease of 1000 yuan/ton.

Raw materials

This week, the ex-works price of petroleum coke in Daqing and Fushun has been increased by 100 yuan/ton. As of this Thursday, Fushun Petrochemical's 1#A petroleum coke is quoted at 4,400 yuan/ton, and low-sulfur calcined coke is quoted at 6,200-6400 yuan/ton. Recently, due to the continuous increase in prices, the market shipments are not ideal, and the downstream are mainly waiting and watching. Domestic needle coke prices are still dominated by weak and stable prices this week. As of this Thursday, the mainstream domestic coal-based and oil-based product market prices are 8000-11000 yuan/ton.

Steel plant aspect

This week, the domestic steel market fluctuated and increased. Scrap prices mainly followed up slightly. The production costs of electric furnace steel plants rose slightly, and profits rose significantly. However, the impact of power curtailment in Guangdong, Guangxi and Southwest regions is still relatively large, and the pressure on environmental protection and production restrictions in Jiangsu has also increased. Many steel mills announced the maintenance plan in September. As of this Thursday, the capacity utilization rate of 92 independent electric furnace steel plants was 68.15%, a decrease of 0.79% from last week.

Market forecast

After the recent price increase in the raw material market, it has a certain supporting effect on the production cost of electrodes. The low-price selling situation in the market has improved, and the price has stopped falling. In the later period, it is expected that the market would be dominated by a downturn in the short term.