Custom Carbon & Graphite Machining

06 Oct

Graphite Use in Nuclear Reactors

Here in Lorain, Ohio, where Semco Carbon is located, we sit between two nuclear power plants. One is about 75 miles away, up the shore of Lake Erie. Another lies about the same distance west of us. It is likely that if you live in the US, you aren’t too far from a nuclear power plant. Chances are greater that you’re getting energy from one. According to the World Nuclear Association, nuclear power accounts for about 19% of the electricity generated in the US. Graphite use in nuclear reactors is actually older than commercial nuclear power. When Enrico Fermi's team...

22 Sep

Graphite is Helping to Bring Computer Chip Manufacturing Back to the U.S.

You don’t see them, you definitely can’t hear them (at least individually), and it’s doubtful you can smell them, but computer chips are in nearly everything now. Thank a computer chip for making the electronic devices in your car's braking system responsive to road conditions, or for making it easy to pick up your phone and video call your cousin in Ireland. They’re in many common electronic devices like pacemakers and, of course, they proliferate in AI server farms processing millions of requests a second. For decades, the majority of those chips were made overseas, primarily in Taiwan and South Korea....

17 Jun

Precision Graphite Machining for Next-Gen Semiconductors

The semiconductor industry is in the middle of an expansion that doesn't have much precedent. In early 2026, the industry was tracking toward roughly $1 trillion in annual sales, driven by the surge in data-center networking (and let’s not forget about memory demand). Graphite's predictable electrical conductivity , allows machined parts to act as plasma electrodes, grounding components, or current paths in semiconductor chambers. Like you, we at Semco have read the headlines about chips. Unlike most, though, we also detect the quieter story behind the headlines about the materials and processes that make advanced semiconductor manufacturing possible. High purity...

10 Jun

Navigating Graphite Price Pressures and Supply Chain Shifts

We know this from much experience: anyone buying graphite components right now is operating in a market that feels oversupplied but at the same time structurally fragile. Graphite prices have been steady over the last few years leading right up to last year. However, steady graphite prices haven't translated into a feeling of confidence that procurement will be easy going forward. So what is the graphite price forecast? Will graphite prices rise in 2026? How predictable is the graphite supply chain? And if it is unpredictable, how does that affect the graphite recycling supply chain? These are great questions without...

01 Jun

Graphite’s Role in the 2026 EV Battery Boom

With all the news right now about the fossil fuel bottleneck in the Persian Gulf and its effects on energy prices, you could be forgiven for wondering what happened to the clean energy revolution. The electric vehicle market isn't slowing down, and neither is the infrastructure being built to support it. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS, in industry shorthand) have moved from niche installations to a central feature of the clean energy world. Utilities, fleet operators, and grid managers are all deploying BESS at scale, storing energy from renewable sources and releasing it when it is needed. Behind the scenes...