Analysis Of The Development Of China Carbon Industry

The carbon industry is an important raw material industry in the country. Due to its excellent characteristics, it is widely used in metallurgy, chemical industry, machinery manufacturing, aerospace, wind energy solar power and new energy. From January to December 2018, the output of Graphite Electrode was 650,000 tons, the sales volume was 587,000 tons, and the inventory was 73,000 tons.

From the perspective of the competitive landscape, the industry is still in a stage of decentralized competition, and carbon leads the industry, but industry concentration still needs to be improved, and competition in the industry will become fierce in the future.

From the perspective of industry product trends, industry insiders pointed out that the development of graphite electrodes to ultra-high power electrodes is a future trend. In 2018, China's carbon industry entered a new stage of development, with graphite electrode output reaching 650,000 tons. China's graphite electrodes, carbon electrodes, prebaked anodes and cathodes, carbon blocks, carbon pastes and special carbons are among the highest in the world regardless of capacity or production.

Graphite Electrode

According to reports, in 2018, China's carbon market entered a new stage of development, and the carbon industry, including upstream and downstream production capacity, also entered the expansion period. Affected by the rising effect of the graphite electrode market in 2017, the operating rate of graphite electrode enterprises increased significantly in 2018, and the production capacity was effectively released. However, throughout the year, there is no fundamental change in the contradiction between supply and demand of carbon products, especially large-size graphite electrode products.

In addition, benefiting from the national supply-side reform and de-leverage and destocking policies, the profit margin of the carbon industry has risen sharply since 2017. The price of carbon materials has risen, especially for Graphite Tile and graphite electrodes, and prices have risen sharply and sharply. The return of product prices has laid the foundation for the innovation, technological progress, equipment upgrading, energy conservation, environmental protection and sustainable development of carbon enterprises.

However, with the continuous release of production capacity in 2018, the product market has also been affected to a certain extent, and the price has fluctuated or fluctuated. In the long run, with the development of China's electric furnace steel, the supply and demand pattern of graphite electrodes is gradually balanced, and the price may remain relatively stable.

The carbon industry is still in a stage of decentralized competition, but with the intensification of competition, SMEs are gradually eliminated due to market, policy, capital and other reasons, and the concentration of carbon industry is expected to further increase. Due to environmental protection policy restrictions, the environmental protection threshold will increase, the number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the carbon industry will continue to decrease, the comprehensive strength is strong, the production technology level is relatively high, and large enterprises with strong cost control ability can survive.

At present, the carbon industry has not yet formed an absolute leadership. The gap in product revenues of major companies is small, and the market concentration of the industry still needs to be improved. This means that the market competition pressure of enterprises in the industry will be great, and the competition in the industry market will also become fierce.

As the demand for ultra-high power arc furnaces increases, ultra-high power graphite electrodes will also gain further room for development. Compared with ordinary power arc furnaces, large-capacity ultra-high-power electric arc furnaces are more labor efficient and have relatively lower overall costs. When the electric arc furnace power is increased, it also puts higher requirements on the maximum allowable current of the graphite electrode for the electric arc furnace, and the maximum allowable current of the graphite electrode is directly dependent on the diameter of the graphite electrode.

The national industrial policy points to a clear direction, and the development of short-process steelmaking is the general trend. Electric furnace steel (short-process steelmaking) usually refers to steel produced by electric arc furnace. Its high efficiency, relatively small pollution and relatively low cost are in line with the national environmental protection policy. The ultra-high power graphite electrode is one of the main materials of the electric arc furnace, and its demand is inevitably further increased by the demand.