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takeover  targets new energy  and defence markets","graftech-takeover-targets-new-energy-and-defence-markets","article/graftech-takeover-targets-new-energy-and-defence-markets",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":560,"content":570,"excerpt":703,"featured":50,"reporter":704,"_editable":708,"component":709,"seo_title":553,"categories":710,"visibility":717,"author_company":49,"featured_image":718,"seo_description":703,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":723,"formattedArticleDate":724},"cd1a3ef1-6ba6-4d54-9460-969486eca4b0","2016-07-20 00:00",[],[561],{"slug":562,"name":563,"content":564},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":565,"image":566,"bio":568,"linkedin":569},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":567},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/14738033ec/matthew-bird.jpeg","Matthew writes, edits and produces content for Benchmark Intelligence and Benchmark Source across the whole mine to grid supply chain. He also acts as a liaison to the press. He has a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Nottingham.","https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdmatthew/",{"type":571,"content":572},"doc",[573,580,585,590,595,600,605,610,615,620,625,630,635,640,645,650,653,658,663,668,673,678,683,688,693,698],{"type":574,"attrs":575,"content":576},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[577],{"text":578,"type":579}," Canada’s Brookfield makes $700m bet on leading US producer and graphite’s emerging role the new energy revolution, including batteries, solar, strategic defence and nuclear materials","text",{"type":574,"attrs":581,"content":582},{"textAlign":49},[583],{"text":584,"type":579},"Brookfield Asset Management has launched a takeover bid for GrafTech International Ltd, in a move that could see the company shift focus on advanced graphite-based materials for new energy and defence markets.",{"type":574,"attrs":586,"content":587},{"textAlign":49},[588],{"text":589,"type":579},"US-based GrafTech is one of the world’s leading producers of steel electrodes and value-added graphite products. Brookfield’s offer of $5.05 per share, a 26% premium on GrafTech’s average 2015 trading price was “unanimously accepted” in May, giving the company a valuation of $692.8m.",{"type":574,"attrs":591,"content":592},{"textAlign":49},[593],{"text":594,"type":579},"While on the surface it could be seen as a foray to acquire a world leading steel anode and refractory producer, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence believes the long term value lies in its research into new energy storage and advanced material markets.",{"type":574,"attrs":596,"content":597},{"textAlign":49},[598],{"text":599,"type":579},"GrafTech manufactures among the world’s widest range of graphite products for use in industrial, aerospace, defence and new energy markets. The company predominately manufactures",{"type":574,"attrs":601,"content":602},{"textAlign":49},[603],{"text":604,"type":579},"products based on synthetic graphite, but also buys smaller volumes of natural graphite for its refractory, foil and expandable graphite products.",{"type":574,"attrs":606,"content":607},{"textAlign":49},[608],{"text":609,"type":579},"GrafTech’s primary revenue driver is its Industrial Materials division which produces synthetic graphite electrodes (capacity: 195,000 tpa) and refractory products for the steel industry. The business, which also has a 140,000 tpa needle coke production facility, generated sales of $840m in 2014, down from $909m a year before. This division equates to 77% of the company’s income.",{"type":574,"attrs":611,"content":612},{"textAlign":49},[613],{"text":614,"type":579},"The secondary source of income is from GrafTech’s Engineered Solutions division which produces advanced, graphite-based materials for aerospace, defence technologies, nuclear energy applications, batteries and solar power. The division’s revenue in 2014 stood at $245.2m, 23% of net sales.",{"type":574,"attrs":616,"content":617},{"textAlign":49},[618],{"text":619,"type":579},"Although Brookfield explained to Benchmark that it could not comment with regard to its rational for purchasing GrafTech, it is expected to be more to do with the company’s leading research and developments into new markets and less about its number one business, steel electrodes.",{"type":574,"attrs":621,"content":622},{"textAlign":49},[623],{"text":624,"type":579},"While sales to steel or industrialorientated customers equated to $840m last year, long term concerns over the health of this sector persist.",{"type":574,"attrs":626,"content":627},{"textAlign":49},[628],{"text":629,"type":579},"China, the driver of the steel market, has spent the last year attempting to correct the huge overcapacity and overproduction that beset the industry.",{"type":574,"attrs":631,"content":632},{"textAlign":49},[633],{"text":634,"type":579},"GrafTech’s sales numbers in its Industrial Materials division back this up.",{"type":574,"attrs":636,"content":637},{"textAlign":49},[638],{"text":639,"type":579},"While sales reached a peak of $1.32bn in 2011, they have continued to fall since and now stand at $840m; compared with 2007, this is a 2% fall.",{"type":574,"attrs":641,"content":642},{"textAlign":49},[643],{"text":644,"type":579},"With such a huge demand gap unlikely to be filled, even by a more buoyant and hopeful India, this leaves many fearful over steel’s medium term future and searching for growth markets.",{"type":574,"attrs":646,"content":647},{"textAlign":49},[648],{"text":649,"type":579},"GrafTech’s Engineered Solutions business has had quite the opposite fortunes compared to the Industrial Materials division.",{"type":574,"attrs":651,"content":652},{"textAlign":49},[],{"type":574,"attrs":654,"content":655},{"textAlign":49},[656],{"text":657,"type":579},"Steady and secure growth has allowed GrafTech to build and advanced materials business which receives 71% more revenue than it did in 2007. While these markets were not insulated from the financial crash in 2009 and the slowdown of the last 12 months, the impact of such events were far less severe and have not altered the long term growth trend – see chart above.",{"type":574,"attrs":659,"content":660},{"textAlign":49},[661],{"text":662,"type":579},"Another important point is the market opportunity available to GrafTech. The statistics show that the Engineered Solutions (advanced materials) market is already worth roughly half of the value of industrial markets with many believing its strongest growth is yet to come, driven by increased adoption of batteries and solar energy.",{"type":574,"attrs":664,"content":665},{"textAlign":49},[666],{"text":667,"type":579},"In the last five years in particular, GrafTech has developed one of the industry leading R&D businesses to focus on the growth in advanced materials demand. Last year R&D spend peaked at $14.8m and coincided with the opening of a new facility in Ohio.",{"type":574,"attrs":669,"content":670},{"textAlign":49},[671],{"text":672,"type":579},"GrafTech explained: “A significant portion of our research and development is focused on new product development, particularly Engineered Solutions for advanced energy applications such as solar silicon manufacturing, electronic thermal management, energy storage and generation.”",{"type":574,"attrs":674,"content":675},{"textAlign":49},[676],{"text":677,"type":579},"In simplified terms, the company’s research focus is on batteries and solar power, much the same as Tesla Motors which recently announced a new line of commercial and home battery packs, optimised for use with solar energy sources.",{"type":574,"attrs":679,"content":680},{"textAlign":49},[681],{"text":682,"type":579},"Meanwhile GrafTech also have a highly specialised business in aerospace, defence technologies and nuclear energy sectors. The company sells high purity (>99% C) and ultra-high purity (99.998% C) graphite products to strategic customers such as the US Department of Defense.",{"type":574,"attrs":684,"content":685},{"textAlign":49},[686],{"text":687,"type":579},"Strategic customers are usually served on private, long term contracts that are lower in volume but significantly higher in value.",{"type":574,"attrs":689,"content":690},{"textAlign":49},[691],{"text":692,"type":579},"Markets such as nuclear and aerospace require high purity graphite products such as blocks, shapes and foils.",{"type":574,"attrs":694,"content":695},{"textAlign":49},[696],{"text":697,"type":579},"The way GrafTech has developed over the last ten years is such that it has a serious business in the steel supply chain that could have peaked, while a strong foothold in the immature advanced materials market.",{"type":574,"attrs":699,"content":700},{"textAlign":49},[701],{"text":702,"type":579},"Should Brookfield aggressively target the new energy and strategic markets that GrafTech’s Engineered Solutions division serves, then the serious growth could be yet to come.","Canada’s Brookfield makes $700m bet on leading US producer and graphite’s emerging role the new energy revolution, including batteries, solar, strategic defence and nuclear materials",[705],{"slug":562,"name":563,"content":706},{"job_title":565,"image":707,"bio":568,"linkedin":569},{"filename":567},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"cd1a3ef1-6ba6-4d54-9460-969486eca4b0\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[711,714],{"slug":712,"name":713},"batteries","Batteries",{"slug":715,"name":716},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals","private",{"id":49,"alt":719,"name":719,"focus":719,"title":719,"source":719,"filename":720,"copyright":719,"fieldtype":721,"meta_data":722,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/4d7c373dc7/bm-screen-shot-2016-07-20-at-150517.png","asset",{"alt":719,"title":719,"source":719,"copyright":719},"Jul 20, 2016","20th July 2016",[],[],1792773948230]