Graphite electrodes manufacturer GrafTech International (NYSE: EAF) missed on fourth-quarter earnings and provided a cautious outlook for 2023. Investors are racing for the exits, sending GrafTech shares down as much as 17% on Friday morning. As of 1:58 p.m. ET, the stock was still down 16.3%.

GrafTech is among the world's largest suppliers of graphite electrodes, a key component in electric-arc steelmaking. Electric-arc furnaces are a fast-growing part of the steel industry because of their relatively low costs and more environmentally friendly setup, and GrafTech is one of the biggest beneficiaries of that trend.

But it is also a business that ebbs and flows with the strength of the economy. On Friday morning, GrafTech reported fourth-quarter earnings of $0.17 per share on revenue of $247.52 million. The revenue number was slightly ahead of expectations, but the profit fell short of the $0.22-per-share consensus estimate.

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Source Fool.com