CG Electrodes

1899	John Speer, a chemist, and Andrew Kaul, a local financier, establish the Speer Carbon Company and built the first plant in St. Marys, PA. The company produced carbon brushes used in electric motors and generators.
1930	Speer Carbon builds an electrode graphitizing plant at Niagara Falls, New York. Electrodes produced at St. Marys are shipped to NF for graphitization and machining.
1932	Speer Carbon enters the electronic components market by establishing Speer Resistor Corporation for the mass production of carbon composition resistors for radios.
1961	Airco, a major producer of industrial gases and health care gases and equipment, acquires Speer Carbon under the new name Airco Speer.
1962	With the help of Airco capital, a nine-year, $47 million expansion program is launched to modernize the carbon-graphite operations. This program fully integrates each plant, and positions Airco Speer as the second largest graphite producer in the U.S.
1967	Airco Speer develops an ultra-high power graphite electrode, i.e. using premium coke and pitch impregnation.
1978	Airco Speer becomes the Airco Carbon Division of British Oxygen Corporation (BOC). Airco Speer initiates a $250 million expansion program, which includes a petroleum needle coke plant at Seadrift, Texas. Completed in August 1983.
1988	A group of managers and outside investors acquire the assets of the Airco Carbon and Airco Carbide Divisions of BOC and form a new company: The Carbide/Graphite Group, Inc.
1995	CGGI becomes a public company and a $100 million modernization plan is announced and implemented.
2001	CGGI files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and shuts down St. Marys operations in November 2002.
May 2003	C/G Electrodes LLC is formed to acquire the former CGGI St. Marys plant and selected assets from the Niagara Falls plant. C/G�s first electrodes are shipped three months later, and C/G begins a two-year, 100 percent success-rate qualification campaign.
May 2005	C/G Electrodes� major shareholder leads an investment group which acquires Seadrift Coke LLC, manufacturer of Petroleum Needle Coke, the main raw material used in the graphite electrode manufacturing process.