After recording a decline for almost six months, the GE (Graphite electrodes) prices in China have recently moved up by RMB 200-300/t, SteelMint learned from its sources.
While HP grade electrodes of 450mm are hovering around RMB 13,500-14,200/t ($ 1,980- 2,085/t), UHP grade electrodes are in the range of RMB 18,750 – 20,500/t ($ 2,755 – 3,000/t).
This price rise is being attributed to improvement in demand from downstream mills in China. Operating rates across independent EAF steel mills in China stood at 79.44% in the last week of September, up by 1.2% from a week ago amid recovery from mills’ maintenance.
Support from export demand
While in the ongoing week, Chinese market is closed for a week due to National Day holidays, GE sellers are hopeful of further price rise in the upcoming weeks amid improvement in exports demand.
Chinese GE export demand started recovering since last month. The customs data shows that in Aug’20, country exported about 27,839 tonne of electrodes, up by 37% m-o-m basis.
The average export price during the months was also up by 7% m-o-m and stood at around $2,188/t in August.In case of needle coke also, prices have been moving up steadily. The price for petroleum based needle coke are hovering around RMB 5,500-7,200/t, and that for coal-based needle coke it is around RMB 5,500-6,500/t including tax.
Outlook ahead:
With the winter production cut starting from Oct’20 and continuing to Mar’21, GE production cuts are expected to further bring balance in demand-supply dynamics.
On the demand front, market participants believe that production cuts in steel sector would not be as severe as last year due to COVID-led lowered demand and production in previous months this year. This would support the GE demand and prices in the country to remain firm.
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