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missing link in China’s graphite empire","the-missing-link-in-chinas-graphite-empire","article/the-missing-link-in-chinas-graphite-empire",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":563,"content":573,"excerpt":731,"featured":50,"reporter":732,"_editable":736,"component":737,"seo_title":553,"categories":738,"visibility":748,"author_company":49,"featured_image":749,"seo_description":731,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":754,"formattedArticleDate":755},"ff4398da-1052-4600-826c-53ca1ed293a7","2017-01-25 00:00",[560],{"slug":561,"name":562},"china","China",[564],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":567},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":568,"image":569,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":570},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/14738033ec/matthew-bird.jpeg","Matthew writes, edits and produces content for Benchmark Intelligence and Benchmark Source across the whole mine to grid supply chain. He also acts as a liaison to the press. He has a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Nottingham.","https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdmatthew/",{"type":574,"content":575},"doc",[576,583,588,593,598,603,608,615,620,625,630,635,640,645,650,655,660,663,666,671,676,681,686,691,696,701,706,711,716,721,726],{"type":577,"attrs":578,"content":579},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[580],{"text":581,"type":582},"Benchmark explores how investments in China’s graphite supply chain have cemented the country’s role as an anode supplier, but asks whether structural issues will open the door for potential newcomers","text",{"type":577,"attrs":584,"content":585},{"textAlign":49},[586],{"text":587,"type":582},"Five years of falling demand, industrial upheaval, environmental restrictions and dwindling prices have done little to suppress the appetite for graphite production among Chinese miners; although the focus of the industry has now undoubtedly changed.",{"type":577,"attrs":589,"content":590},{"textAlign":49},[591],{"text":592,"type":582},"With Chinese industrial production succumbing to the wider global economic downturn in recent years, so too did the country’s refractory, foundry and lubricant industries, forcing the least efficient and highest cost graphite suppliers to step back from the market. But for those who remain, a bigger, more lucrative prize now awaits.",{"type":577,"attrs":594,"content":595},{"textAlign":49},[596],{"text":597,"type":582},"The potential of the lithium ion battery market – which relies more heavily on graphite (in volume terms) than its name sake – promises to open a vast new market for producers large and small.",{"type":577,"attrs":599,"content":600},{"textAlign":49},[601],{"text":602,"type":582},"While China has always controlled the upstream portion of the supply chain for spherical graphite – the predominant raw material for lithium ion battery anodes – its control over the value-added processing technology was limited. Although the processing itself was often done in China, it was the major Japanese trading houses, with their ties to battery cell producers, which held the IP around the spheritisation, coating process and ultimately the anode production.",{"type":577,"attrs":604,"content":605},{"textAlign":49},[606],{"text":607,"type":582},"Indeed, in many instances just a few years ago Chinese processors would even rely on Japanese engineers to make any adjustments to equipment in their own plants. Today, however, China has taken control of this process too – completing one of the missing links in its spherical graphite supply chain.",{"type":609,"attrs":610,"content":612},"heading",{"level":611,"textAlign":49},3,[613],{"text":614,"type":582},"Supply chain supremacy",{"type":577,"attrs":616,"content":617},{"textAlign":49},[618],{"text":619,"type":582},"As has been seen in other battery raw material industries over recent years, China has made no secret of its desire to lock in supply chains. From lithium resources in Australia, to cobalt mines in the DRC, to the recent acquisition of shares in the leading lithium brine producer– China’s global reach to secure lithium ion battery raw materials has known no bounds.",{"type":577,"attrs":621,"content":622},{"textAlign":49},[623],{"text":624,"type":582},"But in terms of graphite, developments have been closer to home. In a recent visit to Shandong province, China, Benchmark saw first-hand the investment the country’s miners have ploughed into processing equipment to increase their hold over value added markets.",{"type":577,"attrs":626,"content":627},{"textAlign":49},[628],{"text":629,"type":582},"The promise of higher margins have seen the country’s flake graphite miners become processors; processors become value-adders, and value-adders become anode producers – as all areas of the industry aim to further their reach downstream. And these efforts have not been a one way street. Acknowledgement of the supply chain issues surrounding spherical graphite production saw the country’s leading anode manufacturer, BTR New Energy, acquire its own mines in 2014 to lock in raw material supply.",{"type":577,"attrs":631,"content":632},{"textAlign":49},[633],{"text":634,"type":582},"But even this is now proving insufficient to meet the growing needs of its lithium ion battery customers. Expansions in battery cell production have been announced across the world – led by Tesla’s Gigafactory project in Nevada. But it is developments in China which will far outstrip expansions elsewhere and make the country the leading supplier of lithium ion batteries approaching 2020.",{"type":577,"attrs":636,"content":637},{"textAlign":49},[638],{"text":639,"type":582},"These developments are what is driving the Chinese push to develop downstream processing and refining capacities. No longer can the country be the low-cost exporter of raw material to the world. Today it is faced with the more challenging prospect of meeting value-added material needs to its own industry.",{"type":609,"attrs":641,"content":642},{"level":611,"textAlign":49},[643],{"text":644,"type":582},"A mountain to climb",{"type":577,"attrs":646,"content":647},{"textAlign":49},[648],{"text":649,"type":582},"In 2015, the total size of the lithium ion battery anode market was 80,000 tonnes, 55% of which came from natural spherical graphite. Megafactory expansions slated to come into production from 2017 onwards will see battery cell production an order of magnitude bigger than anything in the market today, with capacities expected to treble by as early as 2020.",{"type":577,"attrs":651,"content":652},{"textAlign":49},[653],{"text":654,"type":582},"With these expansions will come a wave of new demand for anode raw material – with the market set to expand to anywhere between 250,000 tonnes and 400,000 tonnes by 2020. China will be central to sustaining this growth. However, with between 2-2.5 tonnes of flake graphite raw material required to make 1 tonne of spherical graphite, it’s unclear as to whether even China can meet this growth in such a short time frame.",{"type":577,"attrs":656,"content":657},{"textAlign":49},[658],{"text":659,"type":582},"While a first wave of processing improvements have seen graphite miners across the country install spheritisation mills, only a handful of companies specialise in anode production. These companies will have to expand at an unprecedented rate to fend off the challenge of synthetic graphite the only commercial alternative.",{"type":577,"attrs":661,"content":662},{"textAlign":49},[],{"type":577,"attrs":664,"content":665},{"textAlign":49},[],{"type":577,"attrs":667,"content":668},{"textAlign":49},[669],{"text":670,"type":582},"The ability of these suppliers to meet the growing needs of the battery market will dictate how this split in the market develops. Battery producers largely favour spherical graphite from a cost, environmental footprint and (in many cases) a performance perspective, but obstacles remain despite the country’s investment in processing infrastructure over the past 12-18 months.",{"type":609,"attrs":672,"content":673},{"level":611,"textAlign":49},[674],{"text":675,"type":582},"The consistency question",{"type":577,"attrs":677,"content":678},{"textAlign":49},[679],{"text":680,"type":582},"Although China is the leading producer and processor of flake graphite, the leading spherical graphite producer and the largest anode supplier, the reliability of its battery-grade output remains in question. The structure of the country’s flake graphite market poses significant challenges in tracing the source of raw material which can be troublesome when trying to produce a consistent finished product suitable for use in hi tech devices.",{"type":577,"attrs":682,"content":683},{"textAlign":49},[684],{"text":685,"type":582},"As the recent Samsung smartphone recall exemplifies, low-quality raw materials can create major (and expensive) consequences. Historically, Chinese flake graphite has been sourced from dozens of relatively small mines across the country and, in particular, in Heilongjiang and Shandong provinces. This raw material is then fed into localised processing plants, owned by companies that may be sourcing from several areas.",{"type":577,"attrs":687,"content":688},{"textAlign":49},[689],{"text":690,"type":582},"Until recently, this concentrate would then have been fed into a handful of spheritisation mills before being shipped to Japanese companies to complete the coating process. Investment in spheritisation equipment has helped China integrate some of this chain, but there is still a long way to go if Chinese producers are going to provide the consistency of material, on the scale required to entirely displace synthetic graphite alternatives.",{"type":577,"attrs":692,"content":693},{"textAlign":49},[694],{"text":695,"type":582},"In addition, the introduction of more spheritisation infrastructure runs the risk of actuallty making the supply chain within China even more convoluted. In this sense, although China has the tools to dominate the supply chain, it still has to overcome issues with how it manages them in order to sustain battery demand both at home and overseas.",{"type":609,"attrs":697,"content":698},{"level":611,"textAlign":49},[699],{"text":700,"type":582},"Opening the door to newcomers",{"type":577,"attrs":702,"content":703},{"textAlign":49},[704],{"text":705,"type":582},"As China attempts to overcome the issues surrounding its complex supply chain, new market entrants will also be looking to secure a share of this growing anode market. While very few companies have made investments into synthetic graphite processing facilities, the junior flake graphite market is beginning a resurgence.",{"type":577,"attrs":707,"content":708},{"textAlign":49},[709],{"text":710,"type":582},"As well as Syrah Resources, which has begun construction of its 330,000 tpa flake graphite facility in Mozambique, a number of other companies are targeting production which could make East Africa the new source of flake graphite raw material to the world.",{"type":577,"attrs":712,"content":713},{"textAlign":49},[714],{"text":715,"type":582},"Black Rock Mining, which owns a flake graphite property in Tanzania was just the latest in a series of companies to announce positive battery grade graphite test work in September 2016, while Syrah Resources have already turned attentions to phase 2 of their project – a spherical production facility in the US.",{"type":577,"attrs":717,"content":718},{"textAlign":49},[719],{"text":720,"type":582},"Central to the economics of all of these projects is one objective: to take some of China’s market share – particularly in overseas markets. With both industrial and hi tech markets expected to grow within China over the coming years, the rest of the world is faced with the very real possibility of China becoming more insular.",{"type":577,"attrs":722,"content":723},{"textAlign":49},[724],{"text":725,"type":582},"Now it has the infrastructure in place, China will be aiming to control more of the value-adding process domestically, potentially creating opportunities for raw material producers elsewhere.",{"type":577,"attrs":727,"content":728},{"textAlign":49},[729],{"text":730,"type":582},"To find out more about the graphite industry, register for Graphite Supply Chain 2016 today. Graphite Supply Chain 2016 is three days of high-quality information and networking dedicated to the natural graphite industry. Taking place between 13-15 November in the stunning Island Hotel, Newport Beach in California, the inaugural event is hosted by two of the industry’s most respected mineral information specialists.","Benchmark explores how investments in China’s graphite supply chain have cemented the country’s role as an anode supplier, but asks whether structural issues will open the door for potential newcomers Five years of falling demand, industrial upheaval, environmental restrictions and dwindling prices have done little to suppress the appetite for graphite production among Chinese miners; […]",[733],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":734},{"job_title":568,"image":735,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},{"filename":570},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"ff4398da-1052-4600-826c-53ca1ed293a7\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[739,742,745],{"slug":740,"name":741},"batteries","Batteries",{"slug":743,"name":744},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals",{"slug":746,"name":747},"graphite","Graphite","private",{"id":49,"alt":750,"name":750,"focus":750,"title":750,"source":750,"filename":751,"copyright":750,"fieldtype":752,"meta_data":753,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/1d607965cc/bm-screen-shot-2017-01-24-at-165503.png","asset",{"alt":750,"title":750,"source":750,"copyright":750},"Jan 25, 2017","25th January 2017",[],[],1789982603950]