GrafTech International Ltd.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Gravtech's second quarter 2025 earnings conference call and webcast. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If anyone has any difficulties hearing the conference, please press star zero for operator assistance at any time. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mike Dillon. Vice President, Investor Relations, and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Jenny. Good morning, and welcome to Graf Tech International's second quarter 2025 earnings call. On with me today are Tim Flanagan, Chief Executive Officer, Jeremy Halford, Chief Operating Officer, and Rory O'Donnell, Chief Financial Officer. Tim will begin with opening comments. Jeremy will then discuss safety, the commercial environment, sales, and operational matters. Rory will review our quarterly results and other financial details, and Tim will close with additional comments on our outlook. We will then open the call to questions. Turning to our next slide. As a reminder, some of the matters discussed on this call may include forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, performance, trends, and strategies. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by forward-looking statements are shown here. We will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, and these slides include the relevant non-GAAP reconciliations. You can find these slides in the investor relations section of our website at www.graftech.com. A replay of the call will also be available on our website. I'll now turn the call over to Tim.

Good morning, and thank you for joining Graftech's second quarter's earning call. Today we'll provide an overview of our second quarter performance, share key operational and commercial updates, and discuss our outlook for the remainder of 2025 and beyond. But before we dive into the details, I'd like to begin with an update on the proactive steps we are taking as it relates to the evolving industry dynamics and heightened macro uncertainty. We have outlined a series of strategic initiatives to meet our key commercial, operational, and financial objectives. Our objectives are clear and include increasing sales volume and regaining market share, improving our average pricing through a combination of price increases and shifting the geographic mix of our volume to higher-priced regions, reducing costs and working capital requirements, and ultimately to improve our liquidity and strengthen our overall financial foundation. Our initiatives have been designed to strengthen our competitive positioning, enhance our resiliency, and ensure we remain well-positioned to generate strong returns as the market recovers. The team is delivering on all fronts and the results have been impressive. Allow me to highlight a few examples from our second quarter performance. We grew sales volume by 12% year over year in the second quarter and 16% sequentially compared to the first quarter. In fact, our sales volume in the second quarter was our highest level since the third quarter of 2022. Likewise, our capacity utilization rate increased to 65%, also the highest level in nearly three years. We achieved a 13% year-over-year decline in our cash COGS per metric ton, and we expect to exceed our initial cost reduction guidance for the full year. We generated positive EBITDA for the first time since the second quarter of last year. And lastly, our cash flow performance and quarter end liquidity position exceeded our expectations. Overall, we're very pleased with these second quarter results. However, I want to be clear. That doesn't mean we're satisfied with the current level of performance. However, we do view these results as a positive step in the right direction. These are signs of progress and momentum, providing a solid platform to build upon for continued improvement. As market conditions recover, we will remain well positioned to accelerate our path back to normalized levels of profitability. With that introduction, let me expand on our initiatives and performance in a few of these areas, starting with the commercial efforts. We are actively leveraging our strong customer value proposition and capitalizing on the commercial momentum we have built to expand our market share and drive continued volume growth. With the second quarter performance I referenced earlier, our year-to-date sales volume is up 7% compared to 2024. Further, we remain on track to increase our sales volume by approximately 10% on a full year basis for 2025 compared to last year. This will result in cumulative sales volume growth of approximately 25% since the end of 2023. This is impressive growth in any market, but is particularly noteworthy given the graphite electrode demand has remained relatively flat for the past two years. It's a clear indication that our strategy is working and that we're outperforming the broader market. However, we continue to face challenging pricing dynamics in nearly all of our regions. While this is partially attributable to the flat market demand, it further reflects the increased level of low-price graphite electrode exports from China and others that we've spoken to previously, which has resulted in excess electrode capacity in the rest of the world. To navigate these headwinds, we are closely monitoring market developments and remain focused on disciplined execution across all areas within our control. To that end, we have taken and will continue to take decisive actions to improve our overall financial performance. These efforts include ongoing actions to strategically shift the geographic mix of our sales volume towards regions where we see opportunities to capture higher selling prices. In some cases, this means making deliberate decision to walk away from volume opportunities where margins are unacceptably low and we're not being compensated to the value proposition we provide. This is consistent with our commitment to a disciplined, value-focused growth, not volume for volume's sake. A key element of this strategy is to grow our volume and market share in the United States, which remains our most profitable region. In the second quarter, we increased our sales volume in the United States by 38% year-over-year. This represents another step change in our U.S. market share and is providing significant support to our average selling price. For the second quarter, our weighted average price was approximately $4,200 per metric ton. Comparing this to the fourth quarter of 2024, where our average selling price for non-LTA volume was approximately $3,900 per metric ton, this represents an increase of nearly 8%. As overall market pricing has remained relatively flat over this period, the growth in our average selling price is attributable to the successful execution of this strategy. While optimizing the geographic mix of our sales volume is an important step towards improving the quality of our order book, the reality is the absolute level of pricing across the industry must increase to more accurately reflect the underlying costs, the value delivered, and the essential nature of graphite electrodes. Earlier this year, we informed our customers of our intention to increase prices by 15% on uncommitted volume for 2025. This increase is the first necessary step on the path to restoring pricing and therefore profitability to levels that will support our ability to invest in our business. Our customers recognize that graphite electrodes are a relatively small piece of their overall cost structure, but are just as important as the scrap they put in their mill or the electricity that powers their furnace. They appreciate the significant steps taken by Graphitech to improve the health of our business before coming to them with the price increase. While capturing higher pricing in a soft commercial environment is never easy, we're encouraged that we're starting to see price stability across many of our key regions. As we finalize customer negotiations related to volume for the balance of 2025 and head into discussions with our customers on their needs for 2026, we look forward to discussing the unmatched value we provide to our customers beyond just supplying electrodes of the highest quality. This includes the reliability of supply and our world-class technical services. all which support a higher price point. We are unwavering in our commitment to serve our customers with excellence and be the most trusted, value-added supplier of high-quality graphite electrodes consistent with our focus on nurturing long-term partnerships built on performance, reliability, and mutual success. Allow me to pivot to cost. I want to acknowledge the outstanding work our team has done to significantly improve our cost structure. from fixed and variable operating expenses to corporate overhead costs. Through disciplined execution and a relentless focus on efficiency, we've made remarkable progress in driving down costs and enhancing the overall agility of our operations. Further, our team continues to effectively manage the uncertainty caused by the evolving global trade-making policy and specifically the impact of US tariffs. As we've consistently noted, our integrated global network of production gives us flexibility around where we manufacture our products, allowing us to serve end markets efficiently and reliably. In addition, we maintain strategically positioned inventories across key geographies, allowing us to meet customer needs even in dynamic market conditions. As a result, we are well positioned to minimize the potential impacts of those imposed tariffs. As we noted in Q1, we expect the impact of the announced tariffs to have less than a 1% impact on our 2025 cash costs, which is reflected in our updated cash COGS guidance. The current trade announcements also present opportunities for our business. We're closely monitoring how various tariff scenarios could influence steel industry trends and shape the commercial environment for graphite electrodes. For example, With the expanded Section 232 tariffs that have been implemented on U.S. steel imports into the U.S., we continue to expect those tariffs will be stickier than the broader tariff programs that have continued to evolve. Further, we expect higher Section 232 tariffs will support an increase in steel production within the United States, and this presents a tremendous opportunity for Graphtec. Based on the latest statistics from the World Steel Association, Nearly 72% of the steel produced in the U.S. in 2024 was manufactured using the electric arc furnace steelmaking approach, an increase of approximately 350 basis points compared to 2023. And as we'll discuss later in our comments, we expect this positive mix shift will continue. Given our strong momentum in this key region, combined with increased tariffs impacting certain foreign graphite electrode competitors, we are well positioned to compete for incremental demand from our U.S. customers. Overall, given the fluid nature of global trade policy, we are continually assessing the range of potential tariff outcomes and taking proactive measures that seek to address the following, minimizing the risk for graph tech, capitalizing on emerging opportunities, and promoting fair trade in our key regions. Above all, our focus remains on meeting the needs of our customers, and we are confident in our ability to do so. Taking a step back regarding our second quarter performance, we're pleased that our efforts across all of the areas that I've discussed are beginning to translate into improved bottom line performance. This reflects signs of progress and momentum towards our objective of accelerating our path back to normalized levels of profitability. To that end, I want to sincerely thank our entire team around the world for the remarkable efforts, their resilience, and commitment during this pivotal time. Their dedication continues to drive our progress and position us for long-term success. With that, let me turn it over to Jeremy to provide more color on our operational and commercial performance.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with an update on safety, which is one of our core values and a non-negotiable priority across our organization. We are pleased to have maintained strong momentum in this area, putting us on track for our best safety performance ever. This positive trend is a direct result of our team's vigilance, accountability, and shared commitment to a culture of safety. As we move through the rest of the year, sustaining and building on this momentum will remain a key focus. While we're proud to be among the top safety performers in the broader manufacturing industry, we are not satisfied. Our ultimate goal is zero injuries, and we will continue working relentlessly toward that standard every single day. Let me now turn to the next slide to discuss the commercial environment. On a global basis, steel production outside of China was approximately 210 million tons in the second quarter of 2025, which was down 1% compared to the second quarter of last year. This resulted in a global utilization rate for the second quarter of approximately 67%. Looking at some of our key commercial regions, using data published by World Steel Association earlier this week. For North America, steel production was down 1% year to date compared to the prior year. Specific to the U.S., World Steel reported that production grew 1% year to date through June. For the balance of the year, reflecting the impact of U.S. tariffs on the level of steel imports, we expect further growth in this region on a full year basis. In the EU, steel output decreased 3% year to date compared to the same period in 2024 and remains well below historical levels of steel production and utilization for that region. With that background, let's turn to the next slide for more details on our results. Starting with our operations, our production volume in the second quarter was approximately 29,000 metric tons. This resulted in a capacity utilization rate of 65%, representing our highest utilization rate since the third quarter of 2022. In addition, our teams continue to do extraordinary work in identifying and executing cost reduction opportunities across various components of our cost structure. While Rory will share details on the numbers, let me highlight a few examples. We continue to leverage our decades of research and development and innovation to bring down usage rates and find alternatives for certain raw materials without compromising the quality of our products. We're also capitalizing on our recent technology investments to reduce our overall energy consumption, while simultaneously benefiting from optimized production scheduling to take advantage of reduced electricity pricing during off-peak hours. We've also made tremendous progress in executing our procurement strategy, diversifying our supplier base to further reduce raw material costs. And finally, our cost structure continues to benefit from our actions to lower fixed costs. And these reductions are further amplified by the improved fixed cost leverage that comes with the increased production volumes. Importantly, all of this is being accomplished without compromising our product quality and reliability nor our commitment to the environment or to safety. Turning to our commercial performance, in the second quarter, our sales volume was approximately 29,000 metric tons. As Tim noted, this was a 12% year-over-year increase and represented our highest sales volume performance in 11 quarters. Of particular note is our success in actively shifting a significant portion of our volume to the U.S., as we have discussed. Year-to-date, we've grown sales volume in this region by 32% compared to last year. This is an especially impressive result, given that year-to-date steel production in the US is up just 1%, as I mentioned earlier. Our average selling price for the second quarter was approximately $4,200 per metric ton, which represented a 12% year-over-year decline. This decrease was largely driven by the substantial completion in 2024 of the higher-priced LTAs as well as persistent challenges with industry-wide pricing that we have discussed. Our focus remains on mitigating these impacts in the near term, including the previously mentioned geographic mix shift toward the U.S. Similar to all regions, average pricing in the U.S. is below year-ago levels, but it remains our strongest region for graphite electrode pricing. In fact, we estimate that the higher mix of U.S. volume boosted our weighted average selling price for the second quarter by approximately $80 per metric ton and by $110 per metric ton on a year-to-date basis. As a result, when comparing our second quarter weighted average price of $4,200 per metric ton to the more comparable non-LTA price of $3,900 per metric ton that we reported for the fourth quarter of last year, we saw an increase of nearly 8%, as Tim referenced earlier. Further, our weighted average price for the second quarter represented a 2% sequential increase over the first quarter of this year. Overall, our commercial momentum, despite a muted demand environment, underscores the success of our customer engagement strategy and the compelling value we deliver to our customers. As we have noted, Our value proposition is built on a number of key pillars, including unmatched technical capabilities related to our architect furnace productivity system and we'll ask customer services team. Ongoing investments in research and development, which continue to expand graph tech's leading position in graphite electrode and petroleum needle coke technology. Our unique vertical integration into needle coke, providing surety of supply for our key raw material. and further supply reliability, enabled by our integrated and flexible global production footprint, an increasingly critical advantage amid evolving global trade policies. Ultimately, we're committed to building and strengthening long-term customer relationships, focused on delivering mutual value and shared success for years to come. As I conclude my comments, let me take a moment to note that the continued progress and momentum we are seeing across our business is a testament to the hard work and attention to detail of our more than 1,000 global employees, and I want to personally thank them for their efforts. With that, I'll now turn it over to Rory to cover the rest of our financial details.

Thank you, Jeremy, and good morning, everyone. For the second quarter, we had a net loss of $87 million, or $0.34 per share. This included a $43 million non-cash income tax charge in the second quarter to establish a valuation allowance against certain deferred tax assets. We recorded this valuation allowance based on historical operating results. But to be clear, this does not reflect a change in our future projections regarding taxable income, as our confidence in recovering to normalized levels of profitability in the coming years remains intact. For the second quarter, adjusted EBITDA was $3 million. This compares to $14 million of adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of 2024, which included a $9 million benefit in connection with the favorable outcome of an arbitration. The remaining year-over-year decline was modest and reflected the lower average selling prices, mostly offset by a 13% reduction in cash costs on a per metric ton basis. Expanding on the cost favorability, we continue to outperform our expectations in this area and are increasing our full year cost savings guidance. We now anticipate a 7 to 9% year over year decline in our cash COGS per metric ton for 2025 on a full year basis, compared to our previous guidance of a mid single digit percent decline. Using the midpoint of the updated guidance range, this would translate into cash COGS per metric ton of approximately $3,950 for the full year. While this is above our year-to-date run rate, as we have noted previously, we will have periodic quarter-to-quarter fluctuations in our cash cost recognition as a result of timing impacts. However, we are pleased to be outperforming our initial expectations for the year and that our cost structure continues to trend in the right direction. Turning to cash flow, for the second quarter, cash used in operating activities was $53 million, while adjusted free cash flow was also a use of $53 million. This reflected $39 million of cash interest in the second quarter, including $34 million of semi-annual interest payments on the company's notes, which drive quarter to quarter fluctuations in our cash flow performance. For the second quarter, the year over year impact of changes in working capital was relatively neutral. However, taking a step back, We had a $45 million build in our networking capital level through the first six months of the year, most notably driven by inventory, as year-to-date production has exceeded sales volumes. This was planned and is timing related. As we have previously noted, we plan to build inventory in the first half of the year, reflecting one of our cost savings initiatives, which is to level load our production for the year. On a full year basis, our expectation remains to balance production and sales volume levels. Further, we continue to expect working capital will be favorable to our cash flow performance for the full year of 2025. This will be realized through a combination of production cost improvements and inventory management, while maintaining adequate safety stock of pins and electrodes. Overall, we are tracking ahead of our initial cash flow projections for 2025 and encouraged by our momentum in this area as we enter the back half of the year. Turning to the next slide and expanding on this point. We ended the second quarter with total liquidity of $367 million, consisting of $159 million of cash, $108 million of availability under our revolving credit facility, and $100 million of availability under our delayed draw term loan. As a reminder, this untapped portion of our delayed draw term loan is available to be drawn until July of 2026, and our expectation remains that we will draw on this residual portion prior to its expiration. As it relates to our $225 million revolving credit facility, which matures in November of 2028, we had no borrowings outstanding as of the end of the quarter. However, based on a springing financial covenant that considers our recent financial performance Borrowing availability under the revolver remains limited to approximately $115 million, less currently outstanding letters of credit, which were approximately $7 million end of the quarter. Overall, our strong liquidity position, along with the absence of substantial debt maturities until December of 2029, will support our ability to manage through near-term industry-wide challenges, which is consistent with our thesis for our recent capital transactions. Finally, let me conclude by joining Tim and Jeremy in expressing appreciation for the remarkable efforts and dedication of our entire team around the globe. I will now turn the call back to Tim for some final comments on our outlook.

Thanks, Rory. To summarize our comments, we've laid out a clear, disciplined plan to navigate the near-term industry headwinds, and we're executing against that plan. Our objectives are to increase sales volume, regain market share, increase our average price, reduce costs, lower our working capital, and strengthen our financial foundation. We are making meaningful progress across all of these areas. Our recent achievements reflect our unwavering focus on the factors within our control, allowing us to preserve flexibility and remain well-positioned to capitalize on a future market recovery. To this last point, we remain bullish on the structural tailwinds that will support the ongoing shift towards electric arc furnace steelmaking. Globally, based on data recently published by the World Steel Association, the EAF method of steelmaking further increased its market share this past year, accounting for 51% of steel production outside of China in 2024. This is a continuation of the steady share growth that the EAF industry has experienced for a number of years. And driven by decarbonization efforts, we expect this trend to continue. In the U.S., which produces approximately 80 million tons of steel annually, over 20 million tons of new AEF capacity has either recently come online or is planned for the coming year, with further announcements expected as we move ahead. Given our strong commercial momentum in the U.S. and our focus on meeting the evolving needs of our customers, we are well-positioned to capitalize on this demand growth. In the EU, as Jeremy noted, steel production remains below historical levels. However, we continue to see signs that point towards potential recovery in the near to medium term. As we've spoken to previously, these include actions being taken by the EU Commission to create a policy backdrop that is more supportive for the EU steel industry, as well as announced initiatives regarding investments in infrastructure and defense spending that should significantly boost steel demand in Europe in the coming years. Specific to EAFs, while some European steelmakers have announced temporary delays in their EAF transition plans, other projects continue to move forward, and we continue to expect a meaningful mixed shift towards EAF steelmaking within the EU in the medium to longer term. Further, with graphite electrode inventories remaining at low levels in Europe, an increase in European EAF steel production should lead to an outsized increase in graphite electrode demand. Given the expected growth in demand and tariff protections already in place, the EU remains an important strategic region for graph tech and has been another key aspect of our initiative to actively shift the mix of our sales volume. In fact, on a year-to-date basis through June, we increased our sales volume in Western Europe by approximately 27% year-over-year, despite the year-to-date decrease in European steel production that Jeremy referenced. This increase in our European market share positions us well for recovery in this region. More broadly speaking, as it relates to both the EU and beyond, we remain confident that the electric arc furnace will continue to increase their share of total steel production over time, which will drive higher demand for graphite electrodes. And with demand for petroleum needle coke, our key raw material, also expected to rise, our vertical integration puts us in an advantaged position. The growth of needle coke market is expected to primarily occur to support the building of a Western supply chain for electric vehicles and energy storage applications. And we share the market's confidence that this growth will be significant. The establishment of those Western supply chains from raw material manufacturing through to the OEMs remains in its early stages. However, we believe the uncertainty caused by tariffs and the potential for international trade disruptions highlights the strategic importance of the West reducing its reliance on other countries for critical minerals such as graphite and to accelerate the development of domestic supply chains with the support of policymaking. This last point, a week ago, the U.S. Department of Commerce made a preliminary ruling in a trade case that began late last year regarding graphite active anode material being imported into the U.S. from China. As a result of this ruling, Preliminary anti-dumping tariffs of 93.5% have been imposed on anode material imports from China, with a final ruling expected in December. This stacks on top of previously announced tariffs resulting in a combined tariff of 160% on Chinese anode material imported into the U.S. We welcome this important development, which, along with recent announcements related to initiatives on sourcing of rare earths, demonstrate strategic intent on part of the U.S. government to foster an ex-China supply chain for critical minerals. While we are closely monitoring these developments, we have also continued to build out our technical capabilities and demonstrate those to key market participants. Thanks to these efforts and our deep expertise in needle coke and synthetic graphite, we are confident we are well positioned to be a valuable strategic partner in this space. In closing, this is a pivotal time for Graphtec We've made tremendous progress on our strategic initiatives, and that progress gives us confidence. We're in a strong position to benefit from the long-term structural trends that are set to shape the future of our industry. As a result, we're energized by the opportunities that lie ahead and remain fully committed to executing our strategy, delivering value for our customers and driving long-term sustainable growth for our shareholders. This concludes our prepared remarks. We'll now open the call for questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on the touch-down phone. Should you wish to cancel your request, please press the star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Once again, that is star one should you wish to ask a question. And our first question is from Bennett Moore from JP Morgan. Your line is now open.

Good morning, Tim, Rory, Jeremy. Thank you for taking my question. Good morning, Ben. It's nice to see the continued share gains in the U.S. Does this still stand at around 50% for the company's overall exposure? And is there any room to gain further share this year potentially from Indian suppliers, or is this more of a 2026 contract opportunity?

Yeah, Bennett, so I would say U.S. or the Americas as a whole represent a little bit more than 50% of our overall revenue. And certainly as we continue to look to grow our share, which is up 31% year over year in the U.S., that'll continue to drive that percentage higher as we move out forward. I think as we look at the back half of the year, I think we'd expect demand in the U.S. to remain robust. Given the tariff landscape and those 232 steel tariffs that are already in place, how it impacts the supply side on electrodes is still yet to be seen as the reciprocal tariffs and all of those kind of work through the system and continue to evolve. But net-net, I think we feel very good about our position, both with what we've done thus far and also how we think about the value proposition and what we offer our customers as we look forward. So look forward to continued growth in this market.

Great, thanks for that. And then my quick second one here related to the Chinese anti-dumping duties. Do you feel this has potential to lift local needle coke prices and ultimately cost support for U.S. pricing? Or is this kind of a further dated opportunity just given how immature the Western supply chain still is?

Yeah, I mean, I'll start and I'll let Jeremy chime in as well. But I think the way you asked the question kind of answered it in some respects, right? You know, there isn't any anode production of material note within the United States right now. But I think the backdrop of the previous ITC ruling and now the most recent Department of Commerce ruling on the 93.5% really sets a foundation that will allow for more confidence in moving forward with these projects. and the development of, you know, the supply chains in the West, which, again, I think we feel good about where we sit in terms of a raw material supplier and our technical capabilities, both on the raw materials, but the graphitization as well, which is an important kind of first step to get the supply chains established. So I think it'll support medium to long term, but it's not an immediate impact to pricing in the short run. Jeremy, anything you want to add?

Yeah, no, I think you hit the key points there, Tim. The only other thing that I would know is that while there is, you know, a variety of announced projects that we hope come online for additional anode production domestically, there's been no announced new projects for needle comb, other than, of course, our permanent expansion at our C-drift facility. And so we do think that this will lead to an eventual tightening up of that market, but that still quarters into the future, as Tim mentioned.

Thank you for that context. Best of luck.

Thank you. And your next question is from Aaron Viswanathan from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Great. Thanks for taking my question. I hope you guys are well. Congrats on the EBITDA improvement and the cost reductions as well. So I guess maybe the first question would just be on pricing and the pricing environment. It looks like there was a tick up in your production and volumes. So, you know, and the utilization rate may be slightly better as well. in the U.S. especially. So would you say that, you know, overall kind of pricing expectations have bottomed and maybe, you know, kind of very, very small room for improvement? Or how would you kind of characterize the pricing environment as you look into, say, the next six months or so for electrodes?

Yeah, you know, and appreciate that, and thanks for the comments. You know, listen, the pricing environment remains very competitive, right? We've talked about the oversupply, especially coming out of China, which has put pressure on the rest of the world. And the global demand environment with, you know, some puts and takes in certain regions outperforming other, but overall global demand is pretty flat, right? You know, I think, though, despite this, we are growing our volume. And, you know, we did grow our ASB by 8% over the fourth quarter last year. So I think we are starting to see price stability globally, but it's still not at a level where we think it's sustainable for the long term, right? So whether it's our actions to change our mix and focus our energies on those markets that and will compensate us for the value we provide in our healthier production markets as a whole, or if it's through the continued pressure of raising our prices and driving higher prices and getting compensated again for the services and the value provided to our customers, we're going to keep pushing the envelope to drive prices higher. It's a challenging market, but we're starting to see some success. We've seen some flattening out of the pricing curves, which throughout all of 2024 were downward sloping. So we hope that we've hit bottom and we'll now start to see some recovery in the back half of this year, but then more importantly, as we get into 2026. Okay.

And could you also offer any thoughts on needle Coke? You know, there was a lot of oil-based volatility in the quarter and you know, especially from a geopolitical standpoint. But does that affect needle coke? You know, and then what is kind of the outlook? We've had some, you know, somewhat, you know, slightly good EV demand in China, but not necessarily that great outside of China. And so I'm not sure if that's been a drag on needle coke supply demand or How do you characterize the needle coke supply demand and pricing outlook as well?

Yeah, so thanks for that, Arun. Really, we're seeing continued flatness in the needle coke market. Pricing remains pretty consistent with where it has been for the last several quarters. And as we look forward, we're not seeing a large catalyst in the near term as we get look out a little bit further and start to see some of these catalysts, particularly some of the Western supply chain developments come online, we think that that should start driving some improvements. But as of right now, things are still pretty flat with where they've been.

Yeah, Ruan, I would just add, if we go back to prior to the Trump administration, you had a Now you're seeing it more on standing up the EV industry through trade and tariff actions. And even more so as you think about, you know, the recently announced deal with MP Materials from the Department of Defense, right, where you've seen a creative and very transformational public-private partnership that really is going through, you know, kind of the government or Washington's efforts to stand up, you know, domestic production and onshoring kind of the production of these critical minerals. So like those are the things that I think we'll see start to drive needle coke pricing and the demand in the West, which will ultimately help us beyond just the growth of, you know, EAF consumption of electrodes as we look out going forward. So, you know, all in all, you know, I think those are two really positive developments that we're seeing in the market right now as it relates to needle coke.

Okay. So given that you expect a flattish needle coke environment, you are driving your own costs lower. you were able to accomplish positive EBITDA this quarter. Do you expect that positive EBITDA trajectory to continue and you see some sequential improvement as you get into Q3? And then maybe it falls off just seasonally a little bit in Q4. And then next year, you continue to expect some modest continued improvement in EBITDA? Have you kind of bottomed and you're kind of heading now towards, you know, improved results, you know, each period? Or where are you kind of in your evolution here?

Sure, Arun. So as you saw in our release, our cash cost for the first half of the year was about $3,700. We revised our guidance for a full year cash cost of about $3,950. So you're right, you'll see some cost uptick in the second half of the year, which is driven by a couple things. It's driven by fixed cost leverage we lose in the second half because of some of our summer shutdowns. It's driven by some of the higher costs of inputs like labor and energy in the second half of the year. And it's also driven by kind of the back half being loaded up with our view on tariffs currently. We're also not getting as much of a benefit from our LCM utilization, LCM reserve utilization as we had previously. So that's a little bit of a headwind. But all in, I think you can expect that the full year, if you fake all that together, we'll probably be at or slightly above a breakeven type EBITDA number. As far as where we go in years ahead, Um, as you know, a lot of our negotiations are coming up in the fourth quarter. So we're, we're looking forward to that. I think we've proven our value, um, beyond just the electrode, but also from a CTS perspective and, um, technical service perspective. So, um, we're looking forward to that. And, um, as that develops, we'll, we'll give more views as to how we see the upcoming year. Got it.

I would just, sorry, I was just, I was just going to add, I mean, You know, I think what Rory has outlined is 100% accurate in the sense that, you know, next six months are what they are. This is all about us stacking quarter after quarter of improved performance. And the team has been doing that now for a number of quarters in a row. It's not always going to be a straight line up and to the right, but we think, you know, we've started to develop the momentum. We're seeing stickiness in our cost reduction efforts. The commercial efforts, again, are paying dividends. And we think as we head into 26, we're happy with the momentum we're creating.

Perfect. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. And your next question is from Alex Hacking from City Research. Your line is now open.

Yeah, thanks, Tim. Morning. I just wanted to follow up on the potential opportunity in anode materials. I feel like we've been, or you've been talking about this for many years, right? Probably at least five years. And nothing's really happened so far. Like nothing's been announced. How would you categorize, you know, the state of discussions at the moment? You know, are they active? Because we've obviously seen others move forward, right? T66 got together with Novonix and they got some money from the DOE. So I'm just curious, like where do things stand? Yeah, so where do things stand? Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Alex. You know, listen, we have been talking about the anode opportunity for a while. And, you know, we've also been consistent in saying this isn't something that we necessarily will do on our own or have the balance sheet to go alone. and have outlined a number of areas and ways that we think we can participate in this market and think those still exist, whether it be a raw material supplier, whether it be a graphitization supplier to the market, given the capacity that we have. But I think as we've also gone through this last, call it three or four years, we've also continued to develop our capabilities to kind of go soup to nuts on the production of anodes and think we have opportunities. I think the change potentially that's coming and the way I would think about it is what I mentioned before with what we just saw last week with MP materials, right? Again, fairly transformative public-private partnership, kind of a very creative use of federal dollars from the Department of Defense, you know, to unlock value. And also, I mean, they're generating returns for taxpayers. So they're kind of going about it different ways where they're not just handing out money to whoever has the best application, but they're really looking for those that are well positioned to, uh, be cornerstones in the industry. And again, I think as graph tech are, you know, existing capabilities, the fact that we're vertically integrated, you know, could potentially position us to be a, an attractive partner, uh, with the department of defense. So, um, You know, we are continuing our efforts. We're not going to slow down. We'll continue to probe and look for all. I think this is a bit of a game changer from a sense of the government is putting real dollars behind standing up businesses and an industry versus trying to pull demand through tax incentives and such like that. So I think that's where you start to see this change.

So Tim, not to put you on the spot, I'm not sure what you could say, but based on those comments, I would interpret that to mean that you are in active discussions with the government over potential partnership type opportunities. Would that be fair?

Yeah, Alex, I'm not going to comment other than saying, you know, we are, we do think we're well positioned. We welcome the opportunity to continue to advocate on all fronts, whether it's for funding opportunities, whether for its trade protections, whether it's for our position with our customers to improve our position. You know, we're, you know, the MP materials deal was just announced last week, and this is all very new and very recent to the market. So we'll continue to explore it as we see appropriate.

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