Anti-dumping investigation could lead to higher costs for European steelmakers – report
In the electric arc furnace process, the cold metallic charge, mainly scrap, is melted by the energy of electric arcs generated between the tips of graphite electrodes and the conductive metallic charge.
(Image by Stephane Gaudry, Wikimedia Commons).
European steelmakers using electric arc furnaces (EAFs) could see higher costs in their production lines as a result of a recent skirmish between Chinese exporters of synthetic graphite electrodes and Europe-based manufacturers.
Around 41% of European (EU27+UK) crude steel is produced via EAFs, which allow for greater use of recycled scrap steel products and which require the use of synthetic graphite electrodes that cannot be substituted with other types of lower performance carbon electrodes.