【Graphite Electrodes】Plunge of 37%! Japan's Imports Fall Sharply as Anti-Dumping Duties Take Effect

The latest data from Japan Customs show that July 2025 was the first full month after the final anti-dumping duties officially took effect. In that month, Japan's graphite electrode imports fell by 23.6% year-on-year to only 1,482 tons.
The data further show that as a result, Japan's total graphite electrode imports for the first seven months of 2025 dropped to 7,334 tons, a sharp decrease of 36.7% compared with the same period last year.
Japanese industry sources indicated that the decline in imports was clearly due to the high anti-dumping duties imposed earlier this year on Chinese-made graphite electrodes. In July 2025, Japan's imports of graphite electrodes from China plummeted 54.7% year-on-year to just 386 tons. This brought Japan's total imports of Chinese graphite electrodes for January–July 2025 down to 3,051 tons, a steep decline of 59.4% year-on-year.

At the end of February 2025, after a 10-month investigation, Japan's Ministry of Finance (MOF) determined that Chinese graphite electrodes were being dumped in the Japanese market and had caused material injury to the domestic industry. Before the final ruling, the MOF had already imposed a provisional duty of 104.61% on the related imported products.
A year earlier, Japanese manufacturers SEC Carbon, Tokai Carbon Co., and Nippon Carbon Co. had jointly filed a petition with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the MOF, alleging that Chinese graphite electrodes were being sold in Japan at unfairly low prices, and proposed setting the anti-dumping duty rate at 37.7%.
Subsequently, on June 27, 2025, the METI and MOF issued the final ruling, announcing that anti-dumping duties would be imposed on Chinese electrode imports for a period of five years (July 3, 2025 to July 2, 2030), with the final duty rate set at 95.2%.
In recent years, Japan's average monthly imports of Chinese graphite electrodes had exceeded 1,000 tons. For instance, in March 2025, imports reached about 1,130 tons, when China was Japan's largest supplier of graphite electrodes, ahead of India, France, and Spain.

However, customs data show that after the provisional duties were implemented, Japan's imports of Chinese electrodes dropped sharply: to about 190 tons in April, 110 tons in May, and 195 tons in June. For January–July 2025, Japan's monthly average imports of Chinese electrodes were only about 440 tons.
Customs data also show that in July 2025, the average unit price of Chinese electrodes rebounded to 534,700 yen/ton (approximately USD 3,637/ton), compared with 456,200 yen/ton in July 2024. Nevertheless, Chinese electrodes remained highly competitive in the Japanese market — in July 2025, the average import unit price of electrodes from all foreign suppliers was 704,330 yen/ton.
It is noteworthy that from January to July 2025, Japan's total imports of electrodes from all sources amounted to only 7,334 tons, significantly down from 11,119 tons in the same period last year. Weak demand for electrodes from Japanese electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmakers was undoubtedly one of the reasons behind the decline in total imports. According to data from the Japan Iron and Steel Federation, crude steel production from Japan's EAF steelmakers dropped 6.9% year-on-year to 12.43 million tons in January–July 2025.
Meanwhile, last Friday Nippon Carbon issued a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, reporting that in the early hours of the day, a fire broke out at its graphitization furnace equipment at its plant in Toyama, western Japan. The graphitization process plays a critical role in rearranging the carbon atoms in electrodes, enabling them to achieve specific properties such as excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, which are indispensable for EAF steelmaking.
The company stated: "We will immediately investigate the cause of the accident. If it is determined that this accident will have a material impact on the company's business performance, we will promptly fulfill our disclosure obligations." Further details of the accident have not yet been released.
Effectiveness is crucial, and it is also necessary to protect the domestic industry from the impact of indirect import channels.

Source: BIGMINT

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