Needle coke market continues downward under pressure in October: Monthly report

ICC News: Needle coke market opened low and continued to perform low in this month. With production at major domestic units on halt, they began to make adjustments  to next year's production plans in the face of slack market.
Specifically, coal-based needle coke Hongte Chemical faced grim situation in production while UHP graphite electrode department maintained routine operation.
Production at Anshan Research Institute of Thermo-Energy is still in suspension, which is forecast unlikely to resume operation within this year.
Baosteel Chemical's production was on hold tentatively this week. It produced 6,000 tons from Sep to Oct, and sales were ok. It has plan to actually produce 20,000 tons of needle coke next year.
On the petroleum-based needle coke side, Jinzhou chemical tentatively halted production this week to carry out maintenance of production line and upgrade equipments.
It is set to resume operation after the New Year.
Presently, prevailing price of needle coke is 6,500-7,000 yuan/mt.
On the downstream market, after the National Day holiday, domestic graphite electrode market continued lukewarm performance as it was before.
In October, domestic steel market that has been dull for several months saw price bounce back for one week, which however didn't make much change to the demand and supply pattern of the carbon market.
In the face of disappointment of steel orders, many steelmakers reduced the output of electric furnaces for the second half of the year; for example, Laiwu Steel was only at 60-70% of its regular capacity, and the number was 70-80%, and around 80% for Wugang and Shagang, respectively.
Moreover, with some steelmaker increasing or adding new production of converters, it also brought down the output of electric furnaces on some level.
National customs data show exports of China's carbon electrode used on furnaces were 17,633 tons in September, up 10.5% month on month and  1.9% year on year.
As of Oct 31, HP 300-600mm electrodes 12,500-15,000 yuan/mt, UHP 350-600mm electrodes are 15,000-24,000 yuan/mt.