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GrafTech International Expects FY24 Sales Volume To Improve Low Double-digit Percentage Point YoY, Q4 Sales Volume In Line QoQ, FY25 Sales Volume To Grow In Low Double-digit Percentage Point

Benzinga ·  Nov 12, 2024 05:47

As it relates to costs, we now expect the year-over-year decline in our full-year 2024 cash cost of goods sold per MT to exceed our previous guidance of a mid-teen percentage point decline compared to 2023. Reflecting the continued progress we are making on our cost structure, we now anticipate a decline of approximately 20% for the full year of 2024, compared to 2023, and we anticipate a further improvement in 2025. The significant improvement in our cost structure reflects (1) the deliberate actions we have taken to reduce our fixed manufacturing costs, (2) the benefit of additional actions we are taking to reduce our variable costs and (3) the anticipated year-over-year improvement in our sales and production volume levels.

In addition, we continue to closely manage our working capital levels and capital expenditures. For 2024, we now expect the net impact of working capital will be favorable to our full-year cash flow performance. We continue to anticipate our full-year 2024 capital expenditures will be in the range of $35 million to $40 million.

Longer term, we remain confident that the steel industry's accelerating 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.

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