At present, under the guidance of China’s “dual carbon” policy, the environmental protection and energy consumption requirements of the industry are constantly increasing. However, more technical support is needed to achieve this, which makes small and medium-sized enterprises face greater pressure, and the overall capacity utilization rate is low. . In this context, many middle and low-end graphite electrode enterprises need to face the shrinking demand on the one hand, and the increase in environmental protection and energy consumption requirements on the other hand, and their competitiveness will continue to weaken, thus being gradually eliminated. It can be expected that in the future, with the withdrawal of a large number of low-end and middle-end enterprises and the advancement of industry integration, the concentration of the graphite electrode industry will also continue to increase.
Since 2017, China’s graphite electrode industry has developed rapidly and the scale of production capacity has continued to expand, but with it comes the problem of serious overcapacity. In 2021, China’s graphite electrode production capacity will reach 1.717 million tons, accounting for 65% of global supply. However, the actual output is only 1.009 million tons, corresponding to a capacity utilization rate of 59%. Although it has improved significantly compared with 2020, it is still at a low level. It can be seen that in the next period of time, de-capacity will be one of the main directions of industry development.
Graphite electrode is a necessary consumable for electric arc steelmaking. With the strong support of the state for electric arc furnace short-process steelmaking in recent years, short-process steelmaking, that is, electric furnace steelmaking, will become an important trend in the future. High-quality steel and special steel are also smelted by electric furnaces. It is an important measure to increase the proportion of electric furnace steel in China’s transformation from a big iron and steel country to a strong iron and steel country. In addition, ultra-high-power graphite electrodes have the characteristics of high efficiency, less pollution, and lower costs, which are more in line with China’s environmental protection requirements for energy conservation and consumption reduction, and will be more favored by the market.
