News
4th Carbon Graphite Conference Brings Together Experts from Six Countries
For the fourth time, El 6 held a large industrywide conference focused on Russia’s carbon graphite market. It gathered 182 participants from 83 companies and R&D institutions from Russia and five other countries, such as Georgia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and the UAE, to discuss the latest technologies and factors influencing Russia’s ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, nuclear energy, and construction.
The 4th International Conference: The Role of Carbon Graphite Products in Metallurgy finished last week in Kazan. This year's program was wider, as speakers discussed how to optimize logistics routes and connections in today’s world, digitalization and cross-functional interaction in production, real estate's performance, and its impact on metallurgy. The current situation in the carbon graphite industry was the overarching issue, however.
According to Dmitry Elansky, Chair of the Department of Electrometallurgy at the Vyksa Branch of MISIS, the Russian carbon graphite industry faces four challenges today.
“First, it is reduced costs and value due to the increased service life of carbon graphite products. Second, it is our continuous efforts to improve quality and production processes. Third, it is important to remember that we face competition. There is also a growing shortage of skilled personnel in all markets, and this is the fourth challenge; its solution will require significant investment in professional training of employees in Russian enterprises,” comments Dmitry Elansky.
El 6 General Director Andrey Kruglov outlined the industry’s growth points, including a shift to Russia-made raw materials and growing customer satisfaction through continuous improvements of quality, service development, and the launch of innovative products. “Our company focuses specifically on these tracks to ensure a stable market footprint and to meet the needs of domestic industrial enterprises,” emphasizes Andrey Kruglov.
Dmitry Elansky adds that many participants appreciate the format of communication between academia, producers, and buyers.
“This is an opportunity to share practical knowledge and achievements, listen to scientific reports, and touch upon general issues, such as staff training, import substitution, competition, and automation. This is very valuable,” Elansky says.
“Russian industrialists need to build positive trends on their own. This is why we launched annual cross-industry conferences for us to be able to accumulate expertise in several related industries. They act as synchronization points for key market players. And this is a great mission and our contribution to a big common cause,” El 6 General Director Andrey Kruglov said.
EL 6 is the leading Russian manufacturer of graphite and carbon-based products. Its core business is the production of high-tech electrode, cathode, and other graphite and carbon-based products for enterprises of steel, aluminum, ferroalloy, silicon, and chemicals industries. The company includes three production sites: El 6 Novosibirsk, El 6 Chelyabinsk, and El 6 Novocherkassk.
