How much UHP Grade GE Capacity is being added by China’s Three Key Manufacturers?

Fangda Carbon, Kaifeng Carbon, and Jilin Carbon are China’s three leading graphite electrodes manufacturers. In 2018, due to a sharp rise in the graphite electrodes prices and a surge in market demand, all the three companies have recorded an increase in profits of more than 50% y-o-y on basis.

While Fangda Carbon achieved an operating income of 11.65 billion yuan in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 40% and net profit of 5.59 billion yuan, an increase of 54%, Kaifeng Carbon recorded a surge of more than 200% in its net profits at 2.34 billion yuan in 2018. Jilin Carbon’s net profits in 2018 rose by 43% y-o-y basis at 2.27 billion yuan.

Amid the positive market sentiments, all the three companies have announced their plans of capacity additions, especially of UHP grade electrodes. Let us analyse how much UHP grade capacities are being added by above three GE majors.

Fangda Carbon:

In April 2018, Fangda Carbon signed an agreement with Shanghai Baosteel Chemical Co., Ltd. to jointly establish Baofang Carbon Material Technology Co., Ltd in Honggu district. The company invested 637 million yuan in cash, with a shareholding ratio of 49%. The 10,000 tonne per year ultra-high-power graphite electrode production line has a total planned investment of 2.7 billion yuan. The project started construction at the end of March this year and is scheduled to be completed and put into operation in September 2020.

Kaifeng Carbon:

In November 2018, China’s Kaifeng Carbon Co., Ltd. and Sichuan Huashengda New Material Technology Co., Ltd. officially signed an investment agreement to invest in the construction of an Ultra-high-power graphite electrode production line with an annual output of 25,000 tonnes in Ya'an city of Sichuan province. The project strives to achieve pilot production in June this year. In the next 2-3 years, Kaifeng Carbon will eventually form a target of 100,000 tonnes of UHP grade graphite electrode per year.

Jilin Carbon:

In December 2018, the Jilin Carbon Roasting Control System was ignited. The construction of the project is being carried out in three phases: The first phase of the project achieved the capacity of 40,000 tonnes of UHP graphite electrodes in the other processes except for the pressure-type process at by the end of 2018; the second phase will achieve 80,000 tonnes of pressure-forming processes by the end of 2019. The processing capacity will be of 120,000 tonnes of ultra-high power graphite electrodes, and the third phase involves to achieve the completion of all projects in 2021.