Historical Arc

A shift in steel technology has a family-run leader in graphite electrodes humming. Even a wary patriarch is making bigger plans.

- Anuradha Raghunathan

China’s decision in 2017 to replace highly polluting blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces to make steel reverberated all the way to Kolkata, where Graphite India, a maker of graphite electrodes, is headquartered. The producer of this niche carbon product for the electric arc process suddenly found itself in the spotlight as global demand spiked.

The company’s shares have tripled in rupee terms in the past 12 months, earning Krishna Kumar Bangur, who owns a 65% stake, a debut spot on the top 100. He’s listed at No. 91 with $1.7 billion. Despite the windfall, Bangur, 58, has jubilation on hold. “It’s a feel-good factor—nothing else,” he says from his office in Kolkata’s busy Chowringhee Road. “We cannot afford to lose our heads. I feel more of a sense of responsibility now.”

The company’s revenue doubled to $507 million for fiscal 2018, and it reported a 14-fold rise in net profit to $159 million. Thanks to that stellar performance, it made a maiden appearance on Forbes Asia’s Best Under a Billion companies list this year. But with $223 million cash on the books—as of the June quarter—Bangur is still cautious. “We won’t mindlessly spend this cash,” he says. “We are in a venture—not an adventure.”

Bangur believes that it was this conservative approach that contributed to the transformation of his nondescript maker of graphite electrodes into the world’s third-largest outfit, notching a 12% global market share (excluding China, which has relied on a lower grade technology than more developed economies).