Understanding the technical carbon challenge

When it comes to the carbon products market, there is no magic bullet to gain expertise , just a series of advantages that we work very hard to maintain here in CRU.

From our vantage point we are able to take in the entire technical value chain, from carbon raw materials via a specialist technical carbon products and their applications in the industry all the way to carbon waste. We see the collateral impact that the drive for zero net carbon is having on the sector.

The industry is essentially subject to two pressure points, on one hand, decarbonisation favours certain specific industries link aluminum, silicon and titanium wether in electric vehicles and their charging infrastructures, or in solar energy. It also favours certain technologies like electric arc furnace steel making. All these industries have one thing in common perhaps paradoxically, they all require more carbon products such as electrodes and carbon reductants, and these industries will be adversely impacted by carbon product availability and the price volatility that’s inherent in market.

On the other hand decarbonisation will fundamentally change the landscape for fossil fuel products in coal, oil & gas. These industries supply most of the feedstock for carbon products including pitch, coke, carbon black and availability of this feedstock will no doubt be hampered by the phase down of fossil fuels in energy. So the technical carbon sector finds itself under pressure both upstream and downstream and has to navigate these pressures.

Now here at CRU we’re old hands in technical carbon and we have the experience to understand how it is evolving. We have been covering markets like pitch, needle coke and calcined petroleum coke for two decades and including in the most sensitive locations and markets, opaque markets and particularly China where a lot of the production is located. We are active at every step of the value chain. We hear rapid changes at an early stage and we have the tools internally to model the impact of the policy on the markets plus we have regular, published data and regular insights you can be sure that the starting point for our projections is continuously tried, tested, secrutinised by the market and therefore fit for purpose. And because we are constantly quantifying the risks that are atone with regulatory story changes, we can help you to navigate the very turbulent waters of today’s technical carbon markets.

So if you would like to talk to us about your individual carbon market challenges please get in touch, we would love to hear from you.