Revenue From Contracts with Customers

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]

Revenue from Contracts with Customers

Revenue from Contracts with Customers

Disaggregation of Revenue

The following table provides information about disaggregated revenue by type of product and contract for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020:

	For the Three Months Ended September 30,				For the Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2021		2020		2021		2020
	(Dollars in thousands)
Graphite Electrodes - Three-to-five-year take-or-pay contracts ("LTA")	$	267,349	$	250,011	$	766,503	$	771,400
Graphite Electrodes - Short-term agreements and spot sales ("Non-LTA")	69,295		32,303		181,754		93,232
By-products and other	10,704		4,673		34,238		21,719
Total Revenues	$	347,348	$	286,987	$	982,495	$	886,351

The Graphite Electrodes revenue categories include only graphite electrodes manufactured by GrafTech. The revenue category “By-products and Other” also includes resales of low-grade electrodes purchased from third-party suppliers, which represent a minimal contribution to our profitability.

Contract Balances

Substantially all of the Company's receivables relate to contracts with customers. Accounts receivables are recorded when the right to consideration becomes unconditional. Payment terms on invoices range from 30 to 120 days depending on the customary business practices of the jurisdictions in which we do business.

Certain short-term and longer-term sales contracts require up-front payments prior to the Company’s fulfillment of any performance obligation. These contract liabilities are recorded as current or long-term deferred revenue, depending on the lag between the pre-payment and the expected delivery of the related products. Additionally, deferred revenue or contract assets originate from contracts where the allocation of the transaction price to the performance obligations based on their relative stand-alone selling prices results in the timing of revenue recognition being different from the timing of the invoicing. In this case, deferred revenue is amortized into revenue based on the transaction price allocated to the remaining performance obligations and contract assets are realized through the contract invoicing.

Contract assets as of September 30, 2021 were $1.7 million, which are included in "Prepaid expenses and other current assets," on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. Contract assets as of December 31, 2020 were $2.7 million, of which $1.5 million and $1.2 million are included in "Prepaid expenses and other current assets" and "Other long-term assets," respectively, on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets.

The following table provides information about deferred revenue from contracts with customers (in thousands). Current deferred revenue is included in "Other accrued liabilities" and long-term deferred revenue is included in "Other long-term obligations" on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets:

	Current Deferred Revenue		Long-Term Deferred Revenue
	(Dollars in thousands)
Balance as of December 31, 2020	$	13,056	$	5,662
Increases due to cash received	31,543		—
Revenue recognized	(22,696)		—
Reclassifications between long-term and current	4,928		(4,928)
Foreign currency impact	(7)		(1)
Balance as of September 30, 2021	$	26,824	$	733

Transaction Price Allocated to the Remaining Performance Obligations

The following table presents estimated revenues expected to be recognized in the future related to performance obligations that are unsatisfied (or partially unsatisfied) at the end of reporting period. The estimated revenues do not include contracts with original duration of one year or less. During the challenging market conditions in 2020, we were able to work with our customers to develop mutually beneficial solutions to their challenges, including volume commitments. We have negotiated long-term sales agreement ("LTA") modifications with many of these customers. We also worked to preserve our rights under the LTAs in a few arbitrations that arose from some non-performance and other disputes during the year.

We recorded $767 million of LTA revenue in the nine months ended September 30, 2021, and we expect to record approximately $233 million to $278 million of LTA revenue for the remainder of 2021. The remaining revenue associated with our LTAs is expected to be approximately as follows:

	2022	2023 through 2024
	(Dollars in millions)
Estimated LTA revenue	$910-$1,010	$350-$450(1)

(1) Includes expected termination fees from a few customers that have failed to meet certain obligations under their LTAs.

The majority of the LTAs are defined as pre-determined fixed annual volume contracts while a small portion are defined with a specified volume range. For the year 2022 and beyond, the contractual revenue amounts above are based upon the minimum volume for those contracts with specified ranges. The actual revenue realized from these contracted volumes may vary in timing and total due to contract non-performance, contract arbitrations, credit risk associated with certain customers facing financial challenges and customer demand related to contracted volume ranges.