GrafTech sees FY25 CapEx ~$40M

“Geopolitical uncertainty, particularly as it relates to global trade and tariffs, continues to have a significant impact on broader steel industry trends. As we closely monitor developments and assess their potential impact on the commercial environment for graphite electrodes, we continue to expect demand for graphite electrodes in the near term will remain relatively flat in most of the regions in which we operate. In the United States, steel production is expected to increase modestly in 2025 on a full-year basis, with growth expected to be driven by the electric arc furnace method of steelmaking, resulting in higher graphite electrode demand in this key region. For GrafTech (EAF), our expectation remains achieving an approximate 10% year-over-year increase in our sales volume for 2025 on a full-year basis, as we continue to regain market share. This reflects our compelling customer value proposition and our ongoing focus on delivering on the needs of our customers. As it relates to price, challenging pricing dynamics have persisted in most regions and the pricing environment remains unsustainably low. As a result, we continue to execute actions to accelerate our path to normalized levels of profitability and support our ability to invest in our business. These include initiatives to optimize our order book and actively shift the geographic mix of our sales volume to regions where there is an opportunity to capture higher average selling prices, particularly in the United States. In addition, as previously announced, we informed our customers in early 2025 of our intention to increase prices by 15% on 2025 volume that was not yet committed as of the date of the announced price increase. As it relates to costs, we now expect a 7-9% year-over-year decline in our cash cost of goods sold per MT for 2025 on a full-year basis, exceeding our previous guidance of a mid-single digit percentage point decline compared to 2024. This change reflects ongoing strong execution of our initiatives to enhance our cost structure. Regarding the impact of tariffs, we believe we are well-positioned to minimize the potential impacts imposed by current trade policies, reflecting our integrated and global production network that provides us manufacturing flexibility along with proactive measures we have taken across our supply chain. In addition, we will continue to closely manage our working capital levels and capital expenditures. For 2025, we continue to expect the net impact of working capital will be favorable to our full year cash flow performance. We also continue to anticipate our full year 2025 capital expenditures will be approximately $40 million. Longer term, we remain confident that the steel industry’s efforts to decarbonize will lead to increased adoption of the electric arc furnace method of steelmaking, driving long-term demand growth for graphite electrodes. We also anticipate the demand for petroleum needle coke, the key raw material we use to produce graphite electrodes, to accelerate driven by its utilization in producing synthetic graphite for use in lithium-ion batteries for the growing electric vehicle market. We believe that the near-term actions we are taking, supported by an industry-leading position and our sustainable competitive advantages, including our substantial vertical integration into petroleum needle coke via our Seadrift facility, will optimally position GrafTech to benefit from that long-term growth.”