Steel prices plummeted, can electrode hold up?

With the high temperature and rainstorm weather further restricting the downstream steel demand, coupled with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates more than expected, since the end of last week, the financial market has experienced severe turbulence, the black products price has plunged sharply.

On Monday, rebar average price in China fell by about 200 yuan/ton. Since last Friday, some markets' cumulative decline has reached 350-400 yuan/ton. The prices of iron ore, scrap steel, coke and other raw materials also fell rapidly, with a decline of about 10%. In this situation, can graphite electrode hold up?

• From the perspective of cost side: The recent international oil price has also fallen sharply, but the gap between supply and demand still exists. It is expected that oil price will remain high and volatile in the near future. The prices of raw materials such as petroleum coke and needle coke will not fluctuate too much, and the bottom support of graphite electrode prices is still obvious.

• From the perspective of demand side: Recently, the prices of steel and scrap basically fell at the same time, with a similar decline range, so the loss range of electric furnace steel plants has not significantly expanded, and some Jiangsu leading steel plants' production resumption plan remains unchanged in late June; Although many long process steel plants have turned from profit to loss, but there is still a marginal contribution. Under the environment of ensuring economic stability in various regions, some steel plants (such as Jiangsu and Shandong) frankly say that they can only continue to maintain production, which has little impact on the demand for graphite electrodes for the time being.

Overall, China's graphite electrode price may still fluctuate slightly in the near future. Reading more market analysis reports, welcome to contact us.