• Sales in Q3/2005 plus 11% to €261.7 million
• EBIT plus 75% to €32.6 million compared to Q3/2004
• After tax profit of €23.6 million in 9M/2005 after €7.5 million in year earlier period
• Net debt reduction to €300 million as of Sept. 30, 2005
  (compared to €342 million as of June 30, 2005)
• Equity ratio 28% as of Sept. 30, 2005 (compared to 24% as of June 30, 2005)
• Ongoing favourable development anticipated in Q4/2005

Wiesbaden, November 09, 2005. Despite the seasonally weaker third quarter, consolidated sales of SGL Carbon after 9M/2005 increased 13.1% to €778.1 million due to the strong development of demand in all three business areas. Adjusted for foreign currency changes, sales grew by 14.4%. EBIT rose by a disproportionately higher rate than sales from comparable €60.4 million the previous year to €86.4 million, corresponding to an increase of 43.0%. The principal reasons for the strong growth in earnings were the ongoing favourable developments in CG, the profit contributions from GS and PT as well as the positive results from SGL T which benefited from the earnings contribution out of the AUDI cooperation agreement. In addition, cost savings of about €14 million supported the earnings growth in 9M/2005.

Net financing costs
First nine months 2005 net financing costs of €45.4 million were burdened with €4.2 million of one-time and non-cash measures in Q3/2005. These were
– the reduction of the US-Dollar credit facility from $112 million to $80 million in September 2005, which led to the write-off of previously amortised refinancing expenses in Q3/2005 (€1.5 million).
– the early repayment of the remaining North American antitrust fines of around €54 million, which had a final effect from the accrued interest (€1.7 million) in Q3/2005 and
– a lower market value of interest derivatives (€1.0 million) based on the mark-to-market valuation on September 30, 2005.

Profit before and after tax
Profit before income taxes amounted to €41.0 million after nine months 2005 compared to €15.0 million in the same year earlier period. With a tax rate of approximately 42%, consolidated net profit in 9M/2005 more than tripled to €23.6 million (9M/2004: €7.5 million). Taking into consideration the loss from the divested Surface Protection business, profit after tax rose from €–1.2 million in the first nine months of 2004 to €23.6 million in the reported period. Earnings per share thus amounted to €0.42 compared to the comparable figure of € –0.02 after 9M/2004.

Statement of Changes in Consolidated Equity
The equity ratio substantially improved to 28.2% at September 30, 2005, compared to 21.4% at the beginning of this year due to the measures detailed in the chapter Consolidated Balance Sheet of the shareholder letter as well as the net profit of €23.6 million in the first nine months 2005.

Net Debt
Net debt at September 30, 2005, decreased to €300 million from €321 million at the end of 2004 mainly due to the operational free cash flow generation of €20.8 million in the first nine months 2005. Gearing improved to 0.9, achieving a value below 1 for the first time in years (31.12.2004: 1.1). SGL Carbon continues to expect net debt at the end of 2005 to be below €300 million.

Corporate Costs
Corporate costs increased from €18.9 million in the first nine months 2004 to €20.6 million in the reporting period. This was primarily attributable to expenses in connection to the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as well as the first time inclusion of share-based remuneration components under the provisions of IRFS 2 from January 1, 2005, onwards and higher bonus accruals compared to 2004.

Employees
The number of employees in the Group remained virtually unchanged at 5,096 as of September 30, 2005, compared to a total of 5,097 as of June 30, 2005, thereby remaining below the level of 5,109 as of December 31, 2004.

Segment Reporting

Carbon and Graphite (CG)
Sales increased by 13.4% to €468.0 million in the first nine months 2005. Adjusted for foreign currency changes, sales growth was 15.4%. Due to the continuing good demand for graphite electrodes, higher prices and ongoing cost reduction measures, EBIT in the reporting period increased by 26.9% to €90.0 million. The slightly lower return on sales compared to H1/2005 (19.4%) is a result of the seasonally typical lower production volumes in the third quarter. The average price for graphite electrodes increased by 13% in US-Dollar and by 5% in Euro compared to the first nine months of the previous year. Total shipments amounted to 165.000 metric tons in the first nine months of this year, 7.8% higher than in the comparable period last year (153.000 metric tons). As expected, raw material and energy costs increased by around 10%. For the full year 2005 SGL Carbon is expecting a sales increase comparable to the growth in the first nine months 2005 and an EBIT, which will again show a more than proportionate growth by up to 30% over the full year 2004.

Specialties (S)
Due to a good development in demand particularly from the industrial and automotive industries, sales in the reporting period increased by 6.8% to €188.1 million. Currency movements had no impact on the sales growth. EBIT in Q3/2005 increased by a strong 42.9% to €6.0 million compared with Q3/2004, with the improvement coming from both GS and PT. Due to the weak Q1/2005, the Specialties EBIT in the first nine months 2005 remained marginally below the strong year earlier period, whereby PT’s result was already significantly above the comparable 2004 result, but GS’s still slightly below. For the full year 2005 the Company expects Specialties to achieve a sales increase of about 5% and a more than proportionate growth in EBIT of slightly above 10% over the full year 2004.

SGL Technologies (SGL T)
Due to the continued good demand for Fibres, Composites and Brakes, sales rose by 22.8% to €120.2 million. After adjusting for foreign currency changes, growth amounted to 23.8%. The EBIT in the first nine months 2005 of €3.1 million benefited from a low single digit million profit contribution from the AUDI cooperation agreement in Q3/2005, as already announced in our H1/2005 report. For the full year 2005, SGL Carbon continues to expect a break even in EBIT compared to a loss of €10 million in the year 2004.

Outlook
Group EBIT in Q4/2005 is expected to be lower than in Q3/2005 due to the shortfall of the profit contribution from the AUDI cooperation agreement as well as a traditionally weak December in GS. Nevertheless, EBIT in Q4/2005 will likely be more than four times as high as the result of Q4/2004 (€5.2 million). For the full year 2005 SGL Carbon anticipates group sales to increase a little above 10% and group EBIT to rise more than proportionately to above 60% as well as a positive after tax result.


Financial Highlights SGL Carbon Group
(unaudited / in Mio. €)

First Nine Months 2005 2004 Sales revenue 778.1 688.0 EBITDA 137.2 106.8 EBIT 86.4 60.4 Return on sales(1) 11.1% 8.8 % Net profit (loss) from continuing operations 23.6 7.5 Net loss from discontinued operations - -8.7 Net profit before minority interests 23.6 -1.2 Earnings per share (in €) 0.42 -0.02 Operational cash flow continuing operations(2) 92.8 75.6

⁽¹⁾ EBIT divided by sales revenue
⁽²⁾ Without currency exchange rate effects

Sept. 30, 2005 Dec. 31 2004 Total assets 1,156 1,315 Equity 326 282 Net dept 300 321 Debt ratio (gearing)(3) 0.9 1.1 Equity ratio(4) 28.2% 21.4%

⁽³⁾ Net debt divided by shareholders' equity
⁽⁴⁾ Shareholders' equity divided by total assets


Remark
Effective January 6, 2005. SGL Carbon concluded the sale of its investment in SGL ACOTEC GmbH, which included SGL’s Surface Protection business. The effects resulting from this transaction were already recognised in the annual financial statements for 2004. The Process Technology (PT) business remaining in the Group was integrated within the Specialties (S) Business Area together with the Graphite Specialties (GS) business. Only the comparable results of continuing operations are presented in this interim report.

According to IFRS 2, share-based payments such as stock option plans and share bonus programs for employees and members of senior management are included under staff costs, effective January 1, 2005. Based on current calculation, this change burdens the result of the segments and corporate costs by a total of approximately €2 million each quarter in 2005.

As already discussed at the year-end press conference in March 2005, the extraordinary restructuring measures have now been largely completed. Therefore, profit from operations (EBIT) no longer includes a separate presentation of restructuring expenses.

Important Notice:
This document contains statements on future developments that are based on currently available information and that involve risks and uncertainties that could lead to actual results deviating from these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, for example, unforeseeable changes in political, economic and business conditions, particularly in the area of electrosteel production, the competitive situation, interest rate and currency developments, technological developments and other risks and unanticipated circumstances. We see other risks in price developments, unexpected developments relating to acquired and consolidated companies, ongoing restructuring measures and unforeseeable occurrences in conjunction with the reviews to be performed by the European antitrust authorities. SGL Carbon does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.