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spherical graphite demand surges","chinas-spherical-graphite-demand-surges","article/chinas-spherical-graphite-demand-surges",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":563,"content":573,"excerpt":662,"featured":50,"reporter":663,"_editable":667,"component":668,"seo_title":553,"categories":669,"visibility":679,"author_company":49,"featured_image":680,"seo_description":662,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":685,"formattedArticleDate":686},"87066004-e659-439a-b7e5-7d20c77a19d9","2019-01-28 00:00",[560],{"slug":561,"name":562},"china","China",[564],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":567},"didi-bostock","Didi Bostock",{"job_title":568,"image":569,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},"Editor - Energy Transition & Economics",{"filename":570},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/2c5ca5c1a3/didi-bostock.jpeg","Didi is the Energy Transition & Economics Editor at Benchmark, covering a broad range of markets across the energy transition. His remit spans from downstream sectors such as BESS and EVs, through to midstream such as new technologies and battery production, to upstream critical minerals mining. He also leads on financial analysis across these supply chains, alongside in-depth policy analysis.\n","https://www.linkedin.com/in/didi-bostock-656342198/",{"type":574,"content":575},"doc",[576,583,588,595,600,605,612,617,622,627,634,639,647,652,657],{"type":577,"attrs":578,"content":579},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[580],{"text":581,"type":582},"China’s 2018 spherical graphite exports increased by 36% year-on-year as of the end of November 2018 as electric vehicle battery demand surges.","text",{"type":577,"attrs":584,"content":585},{"textAlign":49},[586],{"text":587,"type":582},"During October, Heilongjiang, China’s largest graphite producing region, reported production of over 90,000 tonnes of spherical graphite from Hegang, a number it seeks to increase to over 100,000 tpa (tonnes per annum) by 2020, with an additional 80,000 tpa targeted for anode supply. Expansion of this scale in one of the country’s key producing regions will further cement China’s dominance in the battery-grade graphite market. These figures should, however, be treated with caution as official numbers are often overstated.",{"type":577,"attrs":589,"content":590},{"textAlign":49},[591,593],{"text":592,"type":582},"Heilongjiang’s provincial government announced updated figures for production from the Hegang region in October, reporting",{"text":594,"type":582},"flake concentrate production increases of 23% for the year, and a 117% increase in uncoated spherical graphite production. The region is reportedly aiming to increase its flake graphite concentrate production capacity to over 500,000 tpa by 2020.",{"type":577,"attrs":596,"content":597},{"textAlign":49},[598],{"text":599,"type":582},"In reality the situation in Heilongjiang has been under significant pressure from environmental restrictions through 2018 and processing has been restricted, often seeing low-carbon material being transported to other regions for processing which can often lead to double-counting.",{"type":577,"attrs":601,"content":602},{"textAlign":49},[603],{"text":604,"type":582},"There has undoubtedly been a push towards value-added processing and, in particular, anode precursor production. Production expansions have been supported in 2018 by rapidly increasing prices.",{"type":577,"attrs":606,"content":607},{"textAlign":49},[608,610],{"text":609,"type":582},"Benchmark ",{"text":611,"type":582},"saw a sharp price increase for spherical graphite during 2018, during which 15 micron",{"type":577,"attrs":613,"content":614},{"textAlign":49},[615],{"text":616,"type":582},"uncoated material (99.95%) prices were up 20% for the calendar year, on average. However, the rapid price increases seen for spherical graphite grades through 2018 occurred mostly in the first half of the year and by mid-Q3 the majority of prices stabilised within existing ranges.",{"type":577,"attrs":618,"content":619},{"textAlign":49},[620],{"text":621,"type":582},"1m EV target in sight",{"type":577,"attrs":623,"content":624},{"textAlign":49},[625],{"text":626,"type":582},"Battery demand growth was further underlined as China closed in on its 1m target for EV production this year. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported production of 1.27 million and sales of 1.256 million electric vehicles, up 59.9% and 61.7% for the year respectively.",{"type":577,"attrs":628,"content":629},{"textAlign":49},[630,632],{"text":631,"type":582},"In 2018, battery output was reported as 22.86 GWh, up over 50% year-on-year. However, utilisation rates are significantly lower than capacity and are becoming a growing concern considering that in H1 2018",{"text":633,"type":582},"capacity was recorded as 91.87 GWh.",{"type":577,"attrs":635,"content":636},{"textAlign":49},[637],{"text":638,"type":582},"This escalation in Chinese battery capacity output comes despite the transition period for subsidies in H1 2018. An adjustment in subsidy policy is set to be implemented again moving into 2019, with an announcement from the government expected in early-Q1.",{"type":577,"attrs":640,"content":641},{"textAlign":49},[642,644,645],{"text":643,"type":582},"However, there have been tentative signs of the Chinese NEV boom slowing as the rate of growth has declined, but with China set to lead both the battery megafactory and EV stories, ",{"text":609,"type":582},{"text":646,"type":582},"expects that demand for anode materials will continue to grow.",{"type":577,"attrs":648,"content":649},{"textAlign":49},[650],{"text":651,"type":582},"Although supply and demand for spherical graphite is China-centric, the implications for international consumers is that securing anode materials may become increasingly challenging. Outside of China there is limited uncoated spherical graphite production in Japan and Korea but the volumes are negligible.",{"type":577,"attrs":653,"content":654},{"textAlign":49},[655],{"text":656,"type":582},"Further afield, Syrah Resources announced that it had achieved first production of spherical graphite at its Battery Anode Material (BAM) facility in Louisiana, USA. The BAM plant will initially have 5,000 tpa of capacity and in Q1 2019 will finalise their set up for batched processing of purified spherical graphite.",{"type":577,"attrs":658,"content":659},{"textAlign":49},[660],{"text":661,"type":582},"The BAM project forms part of Syrah’s long-term strategy to develop spherical graphite outside of Asia as the supply chain expands to adapt to increased EV production. However, in the short-term it remains focused on low-cost flake graphite production. Its Balama mine in Mozambique produced 104,000 tonnes of flake graphite in 2018, with recovery rates increasing to 70% in Q4 2018 up from 53% in Q3. These updated figures follow on from a fire at the Balama project – the largest operation outside China – which led to the company falling short of its original 1 year target of between 140,000-160,000 tonnes of flake graphite production.","China’s 2018 spherical graphite exports increased by 36% year-on-year as of the end of November 2018 as electric vehicle battery demand surges. During October, Heilongjiang, China’s largest graphite producing region, reported production of over 90,000 tonnes of spherical graphite from Hegang, a number it seeks to increase to over 100,000 tpa (tonnes per annum) by […]",[664],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":665},{"job_title":568,"image":666,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},{"filename":570},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"87066004-e659-439a-b7e5-7d20c77a19d9\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[670,673,676],{"slug":671,"name":672},"batteries","Batteries",{"slug":674,"name":675},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals",{"slug":677,"name":678},"graphite","Graphite","private",{"id":49,"alt":681,"name":681,"focus":681,"title":681,"source":681,"filename":682,"copyright":681,"fieldtype":683,"meta_data":684,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/b0bce0bfa9/bm-spherical-graphite-china.jpg","asset",{"alt":681,"title":681,"source":681,"copyright":681},"Jan 28, 2019","28th January 2019",[],[],1792747658245]