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Jeremy Halford

Thank you, Tim, and good morning, everyone. As always, I'll start my comments with an update on safety which is a core value at GrafTech. We ended 2024, with a recordable incident rate that was comparable to the prior year and continues to place us in the top tier of the broader manufacturing industry.
However, to put it bluntly, our safety performance in 2024 was not acceptable, particularly in the fourth quarter of the year. Our operations team is second to none in the industry and we're capable of doing better. Our expectation is to send every one of our employees home safely at the end of every day and we will not be satisfied until we achieve our ultimate goal of zero injuries.
Let me now turn to the next slide to discuss the commercial environment on a global basis. Steel production outside of China was approximately 207 million tons in the fourth quarter of 2024, which was relatively flat to the fourth quarter of 2023 on a full year basis.
Global steel production outside of China was also flat compared to the prior year. With utilization rates remaining consistently in the mid to high 60% range for the second consecutive year. Looking at some of our key commercial regions using statistics recently published by the World Steel Association, for North America, steel production was down 4% in 2024 on a year-over-year basis.
This included a 2% reduction in the US reflecting a modest decline in what has been an otherwise relatively stable steel region. Conversely, steel output in the [EU] increased 3% for the year, although it remains well below historical production and utilization levels for that region.
With that background. Let's turn to the next slide for more details on our results. Our production volume in the fourth quarter of 2024, was 25,000 metric tons which resulted in a capacity utilization rate of 55%. Sales volume was 27,000 metric tons in the fourth quarter, which was up 13% year-over-year and above our previously stated outlook for the quarter.
Shipments for the fourth quarter of 2024 included approximately 24,000 metric tons of non-LTA sales at a weighted average realized price of approximately $3900 per metric ton and approximately 3,000 metric tons sold under our LTAS at a weighted average realized price of approximately $7700 per metric ton.
Expanding on our weighted average price for non-LTA sales in the fourth quarter. This represented a 19% year over year decline and a sequential decline from the third quarter of approximately 5% reflecting the challenging pricing dynamics that Tim spoke to net sales in the fourth quarter decreased 2% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. As higher sales volume was offset by the lower pricing along with the shift in the mix of our business from LTA to non-LTA volume.
Turning to 2025, we recently concluded a key customer negotiation window where we engaged in discussions with many of our existing customers as well as new ones regarding their needs for 2025. Overall, we were encouraged by the dialogue and pleased with the resulting level of volume commitments to date. We have over 60% of our anticipated 2025 volume already committed in our order book, which is ahead of where we were at this point. Last year.
For the full year, we anticipate a low double digit percentage point increase in our sales volume for 2025, which comes on top of the 13% full year volume increase we achieved in 2024 reflecting the targeted actions that Tim discussed to actively shift the geographic mix of our business to regions where there's an opportunity to capture higher pricing.
We expect our sales volume growth in 2025 will be primarily concentrated in the US and European regions given the muted demand environment. This reflects the success of our customer engagement strategy aimed at regaining our market share. It also reflects investments in our customer value proposition.
These investments include an expansion of our technical capabilities related to our architect furnace productivity system, which is further supported by our world class customer technical service team. Additionally, we have expanded our product offerings most notably with the introduction of our 800-millimeter product.
While currently a niche market demand growth for 800-millimeters and other super size electrodes is expected to significantly outpace that of the overall electrode market in years to come. With our successful launch. We are excited to offer high quality products to meet this need.
Lastly, during 2024, we entered into new strategic multiyear electrode sales agreements with certain customers which will contribute to our volume growth in 2025. Although a relatively small percentage of our overall order book, these multiyear agreements reflect the confidence our customers have in our products and services and their recognition of our unique position of being vertically integrated into Needle Coke and we of course value their long-term partnership.
Ultimately, all of these initiatives are about strengthening our customer relationship for the long term to achieve mutual success for years to come. Let me now turn it over to Rory, to cover the rest of our financial details.

Rory O’Donnell

Thank you, Jeremy, and good morning, everyone. For the fourth quarter of 2024, we had a net loss of $49 million or $0.19 per share. Adjusted EBITA was negative $7 million in the fourth quarter, compared to adjusted EBITA of negative $22 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The improvement was driven by a 25% year-over-year reduction in cash costs on a per metric ton basis. This was partially offset by the impact of lower weighted average pricing and a shift in the mix of our business towards non-LTA volumes.
As Jeremy referenced as we have previously indicated, the Legacy LTA contracts have been almost entirely fulfilled as of the end of 2024. As such future results will not be significantly impacted by the mix of LTA versus non LTA buys.
Let me expand on the cost favorability which represents an over delivery compared to our previously stated expectations as shown in the reconciliation provided in our earnings call materials posted on our website. Our cash COGS per metric ton were just under $4100 for the fourth quarter of 2024.
This brought our full year cash COGS per metric ton to $4290 for a 23% reduction year-over-year exceeding our most recent guidance of a 20% decline. This impressive cost performance reflects the reflects the efforts of our teams in identifying and executing against cost reduction opportunities without compromising our ability to meet our customers' needs or our product quality.
Moving ahead, we anticipate that our cash cost per metric ton will continue to trend down further over time. The percentage magnitude of the decline which has reflected the team's incredible execution of our cost savings programs. Is expected to moderate over the coming periods compared to the 23% reduction in 2024 but will continue to trend toward our long-term expectation of approximately $3700 per metric ton.
Specific to 2025, we will continue to build on our recent cost reduction initiatives across various components of variable and fixed costs in our business. In addition, our cost structure will benefit from improved fixed cost leverage, reflecting the expected increase in our production volume levels.
As a result, we anticipate a mid-single digit percentage point decline in our cash COGS per metric ton in 2025, which would translate into cash COGS per metric ton of approximately $4100 on a full year basis in 2025.
Turning to our cash flow, for the fourth quarter of 2024, cash used in operating activities was $26 million and adjusted free cash flow was negative $21 million. This brought full year 2024 adjusted free cash flow to negative $56 million compared to being a source of cash in 2023, of approximately $50 million.
The year-over-year change reflected a $40 million net benefit from working capital in 2024, as compared to a $108 million working capital benefit in 2023. With the favorability in both years driven by a reduction in inventory reflecting our efforts to align inventory levels with our view of demand.
As we enter 2025, we will continue to build on our working capital management initiatives for the full year, we anticipate working capital will be favorable to our cash flow performance in 2025. Although to a lesser extent than in the last two years, these working capital benefits will be realized through a combination of production cost improvements and quantity reductions while maintaining adequate safety stock of pins and electrodes.
Our decisions and actions in this area will continue to be informed by a balanced focus on reducing working capital levels to preserve cash while remaining well positioned from a working capital perspective to meet the evolving needs of our customers and capitalize on a recovery in demand.
Turning to the next slide, we ended the year with total liquidity of $464 million representing a $210 million increase in our liquidity from the end of the third quarter, driven by the successful completion of our capital transactions that were announced in November.
Our year end liquidity consisted of $256 million of cash. $108 million of availability under our revolving credit facility and $100 million of availability under our new $275 million delayed draw term loan. 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 2024.
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 was $7 million as of the end of the year.
Turning to our debt maturity profile, our new delayed draw term loan of which $175 million is currently drawn, matures in December of 2029. As it relates to our $950 million in notes, we had over 99% participation in the recently completed exchange offer which provided for a one-year extension to the original maturity date of December of 2028.
As a result of these transactions, we have substantially no maturities of our funded debt until December of 2029. Let me now turn the call back over to Tim, for some final comments on our album.

Timothy Flanagan

Thanks Rory. To summarize, we've set out a plan and we continue to deliver, we're engaging with our customers with a relentless focus on meeting their needs. We're adding to our customer value proposition. We're investing in our technical capabilities and product offerings as a result, we're growing our market share, particularly with key customers in the US.
We're aggressively cutting costs without compromising quality safety or environmental performance. We're managing our working capital and capital expenditure levels while making targeted investments in key areas, we reduced our operating capacity and we're proactively managing our production to balance supply and demand.
And we've capitalized on an opportunity to improve our liquidity position and strengthen our financial foundation. All of these efforts reflect our absolute focus on controlling the controllable to navigate the cyclical downturn, our industry downturn in our industry while preserving our ability to capitalize on long term growth opportunities to that last point.
While we remain cautious on the near-term industry trends, we participate in an industry that has many long term and sustainable tailwinds and our long-term optimism about our industry remains intact. As I noted earlier, based on industry analyst projections, modest growth in global steel demand is expected for 2025.
This includes projected growth in nearly all of our key regions. The EU, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. Although the global steel market is rebounding more slowly than many initially expected, we find the projected growth to be encouraging.
More importantly, we expect decarbonization efforts will continue to drive a transition in the approach to steel making over the long term. Based on the latest production statistics published by the World Steel Association, the EAF method of steel making accounted for 50% of global steel production outside of China in 2023.
An increase from 44% in 2015 with market share growth in nearly every region. While certain certain steel producers have recently announced a delay in their upcoming transition plans as they evaluate government decarbonation policies and market developments. Such companies are not backing away from their long term decarb goals.
As such, we remain confident that electric arc furnaces will continue to increase their share of total steel production over the long term, which will in turn drive incremental demand for graphite electrodes further the anticipated demand growth for petroleum Needle Coke. The key raw material we use to produce graphite electrodes will also present a tailwind for our business. Given our substantial vertical integration.
Both of these key macro themes that we have spoken to a number of times in the past. Our belief about the potential for significant growth in the Needle Coke market to support the establishment of a Western supply chain for electric vehicles and energy storage applications is consistent with that of the market.
The establishment of those supply chains from raw material manufacturing through to the OEMs remains in early stages. As such, during this time, we have continued to build our technical capabilities and demonstrate those to key market participants given the results of those efforts and with our extensive institutional knowledge and expertise around needle coke production, we are confident that we are well positioned to be an attractive strategic partner in this space both within and beyond graphite electrodes. We continue to focus on ways to maximize the value of our unique assets and capabilities.
Overall, we believe GrafTech is well positioned to capitalize on the long-term industry tailwinds in closing, this is a pivotal time for GrafTech with many challenges still in front of us. Yes, we're up to the challenge, we set out a plan we're executing against it.
Confident in the steps we are taking have positioned GrafTech to benefit as the global steel market rebounds in the coming years further, we possess a distinct set of assets, capabilities and competitive advantages that will allow us to capitalize on long term growth opportunities for these reasons. We are confident in GrafTech generating great value for its stockholders.
This concludes our prepared remarks. We'll now open the call for questions.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

(Operator instructions)
Abe Landa, Bank of America.

Abe Landa

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I maybe just want to start off morning, just to start off, just a housekeeping question that lower of cost or market or that LCM inventory adjustment.
I think that favorably impacted your cash costs by $14 million in the first nine months. Maybe. What was that benefit for the full year or just for the fourth quarter? And I know you made some additional adjustments in the fourth quarter. I think it was in $25 million for '24. How much will that benefit 2025 stocks?

Rory O’Donnell

Hi, this is Rory, the full year benefit for 2025, that we'll realize is probably about in the range of $16million to $17 million. I'm sorry. And you asked about the fourth quarter as well?

Abe Landa

Well, I guess I could just do the math. It's like $2 million to $3-odd million is my sense. And then the valuation adjustments that you made kind of throughout the year. How much does that benefit the 2025, past by December?

Rory O’Donnell

That number I gave you was the 2025 cash codes number.

Abe Landa

Okay. I'm sorry.

Rory O’Donnell

The $17 million will flow through as a benefit to 2025. Sorry for the --

Abe Landa

Great. That's perfect. And then I'm sure you're going to get a number of questions on tariffs. Obviously, a lot of discussion that 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico, you kind of mentioned potential inventory movements and some other adjustments just want to flush that out a little.
That mean you would, those Mexican production volumes would be redirected to other regions or like your European assets kind of redirect to the US and, and then maybe add it on just your commitments at 60% commitments you have for the year. Does that take tariffs into account? And it doesn't what would happen there?

Timothy Flanagan

Yes. Abe, [Banks] and not surprised to get a question about tariffs for sure. And I think probably what's most important is, is this remains a, fairly fluid or dynamic situation. And I think every business and we're no different really is trying to answer a couple of questions. One, if these are going to be put into place, two, how much will they be? And three, how long will they last?
And we've really been focused on trying to cover this off from all conceivable angles to make sure that we're prepared at the end of the day. And we've talked about this on previous calls. We look at our operating facilities between main production sites of Saint Mary or sorry, Monterey Calais and Pamplona as well as the operations that we still conduct in Saint Mary's as kind of an integrated supply chain ultimately to deliver to our end customers.
So we have flexibility in that supply chain to move production around amongst the various sites that would, would allow us to continue to deliver to our customers at the end of the day. We think we've got a plan for just about every scenario that we can conceive at this point in time to minimize the impact at the end of the day, there still will be an impact, right?
You can't completely avoid these things, but we think we can minimize it to the, to a pretty large extent as we move forward and we're prepared to act on that to the extent that these are put in place and come into fruition and we'll continue to adjust as the markets continue to adjust, right. We're a global company with the global supply chain. So, this is just one of many sorts of intricacies that we have to deal with on a regular basis.

Abe Landa

Do you have a 2024 number of revenues of Mexican products imported to the US? But just a way for us to put a number around it.

Timothy Flanagan

Yeah, I mean, we, Mexico, Monterey as a, as a facility has capacity for about 30,000, 35,000 tons of production. That is split between, Pinto production. As we've talked in the past, we still produce pins in that facility. But again, we've, we've built up a fairly sufficient supply of PIN stock that's now sitting for the in ST Mary's to the extent that it's going to serve the US market.
So, we produce about 35,000 tons out of Monterey, not all of that volume goes into the US, but certainly some of that volume would otherwise come into the US. But again, if we think about the overlapping capabilities of the manufacturing network with our plants in Europe, we have flexibility to move that production to the extent we need.
And you asked previously about the 60% committed. We are committed. We've agreed with customers on volume and pricing for that and we will honor that, and we will, we will deliver those tons to customers around the globe as expected.

Abe Landa

And then maybe just one final one before I pass it along. Congratulations on the debt transaction. Maybe what are your intentions to draw on that delayed term loan? And is there kind of a minimum cash level that you want to maintain?

Rory O’Donnell

Sure. So, I think you may recall that part of the delayed draw term loan. It requires us to draw the final $100 million within 19 months of the transaction. So that would be around June or July of 2026, right now. We have no plans to draw it in 2025 based on our view of the business.
So that that is not a component of our liquidity as far as minimum cash balances. We don't really -- we haven't really put a peg on that, but I will tell you that we think that operatings operating safely and operating responsibly.
We could go well, well below the historical levels that we've had over the past year or 18 months. If you want to put a number to it, I think we could, we could operate pretty comfortably below the $50 million mark.

Abe Landa

Thank you very much for your time.

Rory O’Donnell

Thanks.

Operator

Bennett Moore, JP Morgan.

Bennett Moore

Good morning, Tim, Jeremy, Rory. Thank you for taking my questions. But I'm wondering what the customer feedback has been thus far on the target of 50% price hike and how this might compare to what you're seeing from peers and your other key markets.

Timothy Flanagan

Yes, Bennett, thanks for that. And I it sounded like you said 50% it's a 15% price hike. I appreciate that question. Right. And again, this is focused on what we need to do to return our business to a profitable state.
We've been focused for now almost two years as the market has been challenged in many respects on our cost performance on our working capital, managing our liquidity, taking care of our balance sheet. We've done all those things, we'll continue to do those things.
But at the end of the day pricing in and around the levels that we're seeing today aren't sustainable and they're certainly not sustainable. That would promote further investment for producers like ourselves to continue to grow. Alongside of our customers.
You know, this is a first step in many that we will have to take to get there. But you know, that's the rationale. And maybe if we just kind of before I talk about feedback and customer views, let's put this in context for a second.
So Q4 pricing was about $4000 in terms of spot pricing. So, if you put 15% on $4000 at $600 increase for a ton of an electrode, we disclose in our 10-K that it's 1.6 kilogram of electrode consumption per ton of steel produced. So $600 is $0.60, a kilogram or $0.96 over that 1.6% $0.96 on a ton of steel that's selling for more than $700 is less than 1/10 of a percent.
So, from a customer perspective, this is a small investment to keep the health of their suppliers in place for something that's as indispensable as an electrode. So we're taking these steps because we need to take these steps. And you know, we're focused on those customers that want to partner with us for the long term.
There are certainly customers out there that will buy based solely on price and whether it's 1/10 of 1% of their, their overall margin or if it's $50 they're going to make a value decision based on price alone. Ultimately, we think we deliver more than just an electrode to our customer.
We deliver techno technical solutions; we deliver customer technical services. So those things we think we should be compensated for. And I think there are customers out there that certainly will engage with us and we'll work forward.
So, we will push hard to, to get the 15% recognizing that that not all customers will go along with us. But I think, some early reactions from customers is they understand where they're coming from and they recognize the need for you know, graph tech in particular, be a piece of their supply chain.
And that requires us to be in a, in a sound, kind of operating from a profitability standpoint. So we'll see, we'll continue to push and deliver it. But again, it's a relatively small ask in the grand scheme of things on a relative basis to us.

Bennett Moore

Thanks for that color Tim. And then assuming these price hikes stick, when could we start to see them through a flow through results? And also, if you could give any context on the latest needle code pricing, you're seeing in the market too.

Timothy Flanagan

Sure. I'll take the first part, and I'll let Jeremy talk to the needle coke prices. So just to step back for a second and talk about the contracting process, remember, so we said 60% are volume is committed for 2025 if we kind of think about regions in big buckets, right?
US purchasers tend to buy on annual contracts. So there's very little of that volume that's otherwise uncommitted. A relatively small percentage of what we'd expect to deliver in the US is not committed at this point in time. But those would tend to be second half deliveries to the extent that there is incremental volume needs.
Other regions of the world tend to be more quarterly or semi-annually. So, this really will take effect and those negotiations will be what we're entering into here in the first quarter for second quarter and beyond deliveries.
So, the first time you'd see it our deliveries into the second quarter as we move forward, everything that we've committed in that 60% will remain as committed and as priced when we went through the negotiations here in the fourth quarter.

Jeremy Halford

Yes, excuse me. And then relative to your question Needle Coke, really, it's largely unchanged as we, as we study the import export data, we're still seeing pricing for super premium Coke in the $1,000 to $1300 type range per metric ton.
And so we still have a long-term view on needle Coke that, that anticipates a shortage as we as we progress into the future. But for the time being, things remain relatively flat with where we saw them for the first three quarters of the year.

Bennett Moore

That's very helpful. Thank you and best of luck.

Operator

Arun Viswanathan, RBC Capital Markets.

Arun Viswanathan

Hi guys, I hope you're doing well. Thanks for taking my questions. Look, it's been a challenging period for you guys for a few years now. Definitely appreciate all the hard work and going through the commercial side as well as the operations.
So I guess as you look forward, I guess the price increase is probably you explained it very well there, so I appreciate that. And I definitely see the justification but I guess I'm also curious on the share side. So you did have some share recovery. Where are you in that journey?
And I guess as you look forward, is there optimism on how much share you can regain and what's kind of the mechanism on how you regain that share is it? As you said, kind of delivering service to customers? And are you in the process also kind of calling maybe some customers who don't appreciate that value and just provide some comments on those items next?

Timothy Flanagan

Yes, thanks Arun. I appreciate that question. Hope you're doing well. If we talk about the market share recovery, certainly, if you go back, we did take a step back when Monterey was idled or suspended for a period of time. And we said that this would take a while, right?
We use the analogy of you go down in the elevator and you walk back up on the stairs. I think we made tremendous progress in the US, in particular through the efforts of the entire team. Both our commercial team, which is on the front lines with our customers, but just as importantly, our CPS team, which is in the Mills on a day-to-day basis, delivering kind of value-added services to each of our customers.
So you asked how we do it, right? It's engaging with our customer, it's being in front of them, providing them service and solutions to their problems. You know, improving the overall kind of total cost of ownership, right? And I think we've done a good job of that through 2024.
And I think the results, you know, will be shown as we can continue to deliver our expectation and results here in 2025. You asked where we're at on that journey. As far as I'm concerned, that journey doesn't stop at any point in time. You know, we think we can continue to provide quality service.
We'll continue to improve our product offering for those customers and we want to be the key supplier and the preeminent supplier to every customer that we have in our order book. So we don't have a cap if you will on where we think, we want to be from a market share perspective.
You know, I think regionally, you, you're absolutely right. We're heavily focused, not only because of our production footprint and file in North America and Europe, but there are other regions in the world that have been important markets for us in the past. Some of those regions today aren't nearly as competitive for us as they have been in the past.
So we're making tough choices with certain customers that we're not bidding on business. We're not engaging because they either are value buyers and they're only, price oriented or they don't necessarily or aren't willing to pay a premium for all of the incremental services and value, right? We're not in the business of just delivering an electrode onto a boat and dropping it on a dock of a customer and say call us next quarter.
When you need more, we want to be engaged on a regular basis to demonstrate the value we can provide. So customers that value that we're having a lot of success with customers that don't value that, we're stepping away from in the near term, I think as the market recovers and those markets, the pricing in those markets again becomes competitive for us and more profitable for us.
I think there's an opportunity to reengage because they will want the quality of the electrodes that we produce and sell. But that will have to take hold as again, our announced price increase, take hold and overall market conditions improve. So I think there's a lot of work to be done still but proud of the team's progress through the fourth quarter.
We'll keep pressing as we move through 2025, and longer term again, I believe fully in the macro tailwinds to this business around production and where those are, where that's headed as well as you know, the demand for needle coke more broadly.
I think there's probably been a little bit of uncertainty here recently on the needle coke front and really around adoptions and support and stuff. But I think the overall view and thematic is we will see electrification of autos that will increase the demand. It will just maybe not be quite the exponential exponential price pace that we were predicting or that the market was predicting, a few years back, but all signs are positive as we look out, medium and long term.

Arun Viswanathan

Thanks for that. And then as a follow up just on the regional production that you have. So, Monterey Pamplona and Calais, is there anything else that you, I'm sure you're, you're considering a lot of different scenarios, but maybe you can just talk a little bit about that. Do you kind of, I guess, when you make an electrode in Mexico, is that shipped over here to the US?
And would that be considered an export or could you potentially get some, some exclusions there? You know, because you are an American company and sending it to American companies. I don't know if that's possible or would you instead be shipping from Mexico to other regions and maybe you can ship from Calais and Pamplona to the US.
And then I guess along those lines, do you send materials inputs directly from the US down to Monterey to be converted and, and the other facilities or how, how does some of your trade, you know, and logistics kind of work? I'm just not familiar with that.

Timothy Flanagan

Yes, I think if you think about it broadly, right? Everything starts down in Port Lavaca at Seadrift and the production of Needle Coke, right? So we produce Needle Coke in Seadrift and that Needle Coke is shipped to all three operating facilities globally.
We supplant that from time to time with third party purchases, across the globe, but we get other raw materials across the globe as well. But all the bulk of our raw materials come through our nutrition through Seadrift where the electrodes that are produced in each of those facilities end up really is a balance of customer mix the size, the nature of the product ultimately.
But generally speaking, you can think about the geographies as Calais and Pamplona serve Europe and the Middle East and, and kind of that side. But there is some transatlantic movement of electrodes into the US. Monterey serves the US market as well as Mexico and South America as well.
But again, you get some movement again because of some unique products and such between them. So we have flexibility, we have overlapping capabilities between our facilities in terms of size and diameter capabilities that, that give us give us flexibility.
Obviously, the supply chain as we have it designed today, we feel is optimized for efficient and not only operationally efficient but efficient from a raw material and input perspective, but ultimately for delivery to our end customers, and we'd like to keep operating that way.
But we have flexibility to pivot and, and, and modify that that supply chain to the extent that there are these sorts of tariffs or sort of other disincentives to move material from one market to another market. But again, it's probably premature to speculate on what that looks like or how we're going to respond. Other than saying, we've looked at Jeremy and team have spent countless hours scenario planning for all of the different permeation that that could take place with.

Arun Viswanathan

Okay, great. And then just lastly, when you think about pricing here, obviously an increase. What do you have further support for further increases driven by needle coke or is it going to be driven by supply demand?
And if it is driven by supply demand, should your utilization rates kind of continue to tick up on steel demand or where are we in kind of the supply demand for the electrode industry? And are you optimistic about you know, potential for, for you know, recovery and in price as you, as you look forward.

Timothy Flanagan

Yes, I mean, it's certainly, certainly optimistic long term, right? I don't think we would say that right now that we don't recognize that there are challenges in the market, which is again, which is why we're focused on all the things that we've been talking about and all the steps we're taking, including the price increase, right? We do think that there is some forward-looking view that supply demand will continue to imbalance right now, there is more than enough supply for electrodes in the West.
And we've talked on previous calls about our actions, announced capacity reductions from others that some point, those will start to take hold and that should tighten the market and allow prices to move up because of demand along with the steel growth and the steel demand that we've talked about in 2025 albeit relatively low growth, here from '24 to '25. But still, it's a positive development versus the downward side with the movement we've seen.
I do think we're going to continue to see. I think we're going to start to see some tightness in the needle coke market. There are a number of producers of anode material that are organizing their respective supply chains here in the West and that they are working feverishly to get their businesses ready for the coming demand for that material and therefore they're going to need needle Coke.
And if you go back a few years, it was a relatively balanced market, there's supply available now, but that will tighten up pretty quickly when you start talking about the size of a battery facility and how much needle Coke or synthetic graphite that otherwise recover.
So, long term we feel good, short term, catalysts, are needed to push prices quicker to allow, our business to recover and get profitability where we want it to be. And those catalysts could be further capacity reductions, any sort of sort of trade announcements in and around China in terms of, if you think about the huge swing player in the market right now, it certainly is the Chinese with the amount of material that they otherwise export at relatively meagre prices that influence kind of the rest of the global electrode trade.
So there's a few short-term catalysts that can move it. Otherwise, it's going to be a little bit of a slower progressive March as supply and demand rebalance. And you get the uptick from needle Coke otherwise, thanks a lot.
Thanks Arun.

Operator

Alex Hacking, Citi.

Alexander (Alex) Hacking

Yes. Good morning, and thanks for the call. The 60% that you have committed. Is that all firmly priced or is it part time and contingent? Thank you.

Timothy Flanagan

Yes. So going back to my earlier comments, it is committed both on price and volume.

Alexander (Alex) Hacking

Okay. And then not sure if you're willing to disclose this but any color around the pricing trend.

Timothy Flanagan

Yes. I think we're going to stick to our past practice of not providing specific guidance around pricing. But, I think if you just go back to some of our previous comments and where the market's at, we've seen four consecutive quarters of decline, and we ended the fourth quarter at about $3,900 or a little more than $3900 a ton, mix plays an influence on that.
If you -- if we put more tons into the Middle East and, and, and regions or Europe versus the North American region, certainly that will drag that price down. But certainly some pricing challenges. I think we've seen at least some stabilization in domestic Chinese prices, right?
So that, that influences what their export market looks like. So it really comes down to how everybody else in the West competes for, for material going forward. Probably one thing that's important to point out or otherwise. Remember, if you think about the US volume, right, the 60% that's committed is certainly overweight to the US just because they tend to commit on an annual basis versus, quarterly contracting and stuff.
Prices are lower in Q4 of '24 than where they were in Q4 of '23. So you're going to see a little bit of a down drag from the US but otherwise good progress in terms of the overall volume committed and the levels at which we are able to contract those tons. And again, I'll go back to where we have stepped away from certain markets that aren't profitable for us, which will help our ASP as well.

Alexander (Alex) Hacking

Okay. Thank you for the color. And then just one final housekeeping question. If I may, what should we be modeling for interest expense for 2025? Thank you.

Timothy Flanagan

Thanks Alex.

Rory O’Donnell

So, for 2025, as you know, we'll have our fixed debt still outstanding. We'll have that first draw of $175 million outstanding and then draw to the $100 million will have a commitment fee of about 375 basis points commitment charge. So right around [90] is where we should have interest expense for '25.

Timothy Flanagan

Okay. Thank you very much.

Alexander (Alex) Hacking

Thanks for the call.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I will now hand the call back over to Mr. Flanagan, for closing remarks.

Timothy Flanagan

Thanks, Constantine. I'd like to thank all everyone on the call today for your interest in GrafTech. And we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Have a great day.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect.