Chinese demand

Re Chinese demand. The companies that are actually in production or very close to it and producing high quality medium, large and Jumbo flake, which is what the Chinese have least of, are not selling to the Chinese. Nor have the Chinese expressed any interest in buying their product. I refer to the Swedish company Flinders Resources and Valence Industries (VXL) on the ASX. Nor are the Chinese buying from the significant producers of large flake companies in Madagascar and Sri Lanka. Despite this, there is a high level of belief in the future of sales to the Chinese and this is from companies that have not reached production nor proven themselves in the global graphite market place. I think it credible that the Chinese are future proofing to cover their own strategic supplies for applications such nuclear graphite for the new reactors the Chinese want to build up to 2030, but this is some way off and not going to have an impact for the next 5 years.
The positive story on the demand side is not China, it is non-Chinese supply for risk mitigation purposes. As well there is a shift underway towards more value-added graphite production in China, reducing the amount of raw material available for buyers in the rest of the world.