COVID-19 Impact on Needle Cokein Chemical and Materials Industry
INTRODUCTION
Needle cokes are main primary materials which is used for electric steel furnace. In steel market, every manufacturer has expected the crises which will occur due to the pandemic situations caused by the COVID-19 in the steel market globally but COVID-19 has the mixed situation of patterns for the needle cokes manufacturers in developing countries. The demand of needle coke has been declined due to lock down in the several regions due to which manufacturing sector have been affected on the larger extend. The impact of COVID-19 on the needle coke manufacturers can be seen with the product portfolios which are offered by manufacturers in the global steel market.
Needle coke is a superior grade of petroleum coke which is used to manufacture graphite electrodes. Graphite electrodes are used in electric arc furnace which is used in to refining steel in ladle furnaces.
Types of graphite electrodes are:
• RP graphite electrodes
• HP graphite electrodes
• SHP graphite electrodes
• UHP graphite electrodes
Application area of graphite electrodes:
• Furnace design
• Scrape requirements
• Charging practice
• Burner/oxygen usage
• Water spray rings
• Fume control system
• Meltdown/refine/tap-to-tap time
• Power steel
• Slag practice
IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON NEEDLE COKE INDUSTRY
As there are more producers of graphite electrodes in China and India, the leading producers face several problems due to lower demand for graphite electrodes in developing countries. The movement of goods has become very difficult in the pandemic situation of import and export, even as demand has decreased due to a decline in the prices of needle coke. Developing countries have also faced the problem of storing graphite electrodes with lower demand leading to higher demand for storage space which raises the cost of production leading to a decrease in the global steel industry. Read in detail...