Another korea magazine translated by googleThe trade war between...

Another korea magazine translated by google



The trade war between the US and China is getting longer. Australia, a traditional US ally, is confronting China over a number of issues, including the investigation of the cause of the coronavirus and the Hong Kong crisis. However, there is an analysis that this diplomatic dynamic will give unexpected return to EV battery makers. This is because Australian companies are expected to lower their reliance on China, which has considerable monopoly power in the global resource market as they start producing graphite. The British Financial Times (FT) recently analyzed that "Australian companies are challenging Chinese mines in the field of graphite mining and processing. This mineral, which is essential for the production of batteries for electric vehicles, is no longer under the exclusive control of China." Korean battery companies are also expected to benefit from diversifying their supply chain. In 2008, Korea relied on Japan for 90% of its imports of graphite for batteries, but as China started to produce graphite for batteries, it greatly increased imports from China, which are cheaper. As a result, the market share of Chinese-made battery graphite in the Korean market increased to 80%. China is the country with the largest deposit of graphite after Brazil, accounting for 60-70% of global graphite production. Shanghai Shanshan with artificial graphite technology and BTR with large-scale natural graphite mine occupy the first and second place in the anode material market.

Earlier, Samsung SDI (006400) agreed to supply artificial graphite from Novonix, an Australian material company, and the core of this contract was to ensure that Samsung SDI secured a stable supply chain of raw materials. Reuters reported, "Novonics has decided to supply 500 tons of graphite per year to Samsung SDI from October 2020," and "the supply scale can be further expanded." Graphite is a key material for anode materials used in secondary batteries such as electric vehicle batteries, and plays a large role in determining battery life. Graphite is classified into natural graphtie mined in nature and artificial graphite made by heat treatment of coal and petroleum by-products over 2500℃. Artificial graphite made through heat treatment has a more stable crystal structure than natural graphite. Even if ion charging and discharging are repeated, the crystal structure change is small. If the anode material is made of artificial graphite, the battery life can be extended further. However, because the heat treatment process requires a cost, batteries containing artificial graphite are bound to be more expensive. Considering that battery makers must extend battery life and have price competitiveness, both natural and artificial graphite demand are expected to increase steadily. As Australian companies gradually enter the global graphite market dominated by Chinese companies, global companies that purchase graphite expressed a positive position. One Japanese company said, "The Australian company's production of graphite is of great significance in securing a new supply chain outside of China."