GrafTech International Ltd. is a leading manufacturer of high-quality graphite electrode products. The company’s President and Chief Executive Officer David Rintoul commented the financial report saying “2018 was a very successful year for GrafTech including record net sales of 1.9 billion dollars and net income of 854 million dollars. Based on our strong cash flow from operations of 837 million dollars in 2018 and consistent with our stated policy to be a shareholder-friendly and responsible company, we returned cash to shareholders and maintained a strong balance sheet. Looking ahead to 2019, demand for our products remains solid and we expect to have continued robust cash flows.”
Graftech’s graphite electrode manufacturing plants operated at high levels throughout 2018. Annual production was 179 thousand MT compared to 166 thousand MT for 2017. Fourth quarter 2018 production of 51 thousand MT was also up from 44 thousand MT in the prior year period due to progress on the debottlenecking projects at its graphite electrode plants.
GrafTech has successfully sold approximately two-thirds of its cumulative long-term production capacity through three- to five-year, fixed-volume, fixed-price take or pay contracts. These contracts provide reliability of long-term graphite electrode supply for customers and stability of future operating results for shareholders.
At the close of 2018, GrafTech has cash and equivalents of 50 million dollars and total debt of 2.2 billion dollars. During the fourth quarter, the Company returned 228 million dollars cash to shareholders in the form of a special dividend of 0.70 dollars per share and a regular quarterly dividend of 0.085 dollars per share.
The Board of Directors has declared a dividend of 0.085 dollars per share to stockholders of record as of the close of business on 28 February 2019, to be paid on 29 March 2019.
A rebroadcast of the webcast will be available until May 8, 2019, at www.GrafTech.com