Producer
ESK-SIC GmbH (Schunk Group)
ESK-SIC GmbH (founded 1922, formerly Elektroschmelzwerk Kempten — the original German SiC maker) is a Frechen, Germany-based silicon carbide specialist. Acquired by Schunk Group (industrial ceramics and carbon technology) in 2025. Developed the world's first industrial SiC recycling process (RECOSiC) that recovers high-quality SiC from Acheson process by-products and industrial waste — reducing raw material costs and carbon footprint. ESK-SIC is a specialty processor rather than large-volume crude SiC smelter; it converts imported crude SiC into precision grains and powders for electronics, ceramics, and abrasive applications.
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Silicon Carbide Materials (ESK-SiC)
22%Carbon & Graphite (Schunk Carbon)
38%Technical Ceramics & Sintered Metals
25%Electrotechnology & Specialty Products
15%
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Did you know2022
Schunk Group's carbon brush business is the hidden mechanical infrastructure of the global electricity system: carbon brushes are the sliding electrical contacts inside every brushed motor, generator, slip ring, and current collector from wind turbines to ship propulsion to metro rail. Schunk is one of roughly three companies (alongside Morgan Advanced Materials and Mersen) that supply the vast majority of the world's electrical carbon brushes. These components wear out and must be replaced — they are maintenance consumables for the global motor fleet. The same Schunk Group that supplies carbon brushes to keep conventional brushed-motor infrastructure running also supplies graphite bipolar plates and gas diffusion layer components to hydrogen fuel cell manufacturers — positioning it to serve both the legacy electric motor economy and the hydrogen economy simultaneously. A single private German company thus sits at both ends of the electrification transition.
Schunk Group ↗Origin2022
ESK (Elektroschmelzwerk Kempten), founded in Kempten im Allgau in Bavaria in 1904, is one of the oldest continuously operating silicon carbide producers in the world — predating the commercial automobile by nearly a decade. ESK's SiC business was acquired by Schunk Group (a privately-held German industrial conglomerate based in Heuchelheim, Hessen) as part of a broader portfolio of engineered carbon and ceramic materials. Schunk Group is almost entirely unknown to the public but supplies critical materials to virtually every major industrial sector simultaneously: its carbon brushes are inside every large brushed DC motor (from steel mills to traction motors), its pantograph carbon strips are the contact surface between high-speed trains and overhead wires across European rail networks, and its graphite components are in nuclear reactor moderators, EDM machines, and fuel cells. ESK's ceramic portfolio (reaction-bonded SiC, pressure-sintered SiC) extends this industrial footprint into pump seals, mechanical face seals, and wear-resistant components. Schunk Group employs approximately 9,000 people across 29 countries and is entirely privately held — its supply chain centrality is essentially invisible to public markets.
Schunk Group ↗