Japan's Tokai Carbon to sell graphite electrode subsidiary in Germany

Tokai Carbon, one of Japan's largest makers of graphite electrodes used in electric-arc-furnace steelmaking, has reached an agreement with a German investment fund to acquire all shares of its wholly owned German subsidiary, TOKAI ERFTCARBON GmbH (TEG), as part of a global restructuring of its graphite electrode manufacturing business that will see capacity slashed by 46%.

Tokyo-headquartered Tokai Carbon had acquired TEG in 2005, and for many years, the company located in Grevenbroich near Dusseldorf had served as part of the Japanese maker's "tri-polar electrode business structure" worldwide covering Japan, the U.S. and Europe. But in a statement to shareholders on May 19, Tokai Carbon