Which graphite companies are going to make it into production, page-3

Simon Moores has opened up interesting new discussion today, mainly on potential supply shift and reduced output from China;


"However, the industry can expect the receding of supply to be a steady process which cuts output levels to between 50-60% of global production over the next 3-5 years.

This means China will continue to be the world’s number one supplier of all natural graphite products in the long term. The country will try and replace raw material exports with that of value added products including coated, battery anode materials and graphene.

Existing demand from steel is expected to continue with low growth rates of 1-3% a year, therefore the industry will look to the battery sector for the bulk of new demand which Benchmark expects to be anything from 5 to 10 times the growth seen in refractories.

And with three megafactories slated to come on-stream in the next three years, the question is will the natural graphite industry be able supply these new projects or will buyers will have to turn to its synthetic counterpart?

It also raises the point of where new supply will come from to satisfy existing growing markets let alone the emergence of a potentially huge market in batteries.

Regardless what the future holds, one thing is clear in the present: the days of low cost, abundant graphite from China are over."
Regards

Pauldola.