China currently accounts for all global commerical-scale purified spherical graphite (SPG) production. Coating of the SPG (cSPG), which is more technical and very lucrative, is dominated by Japanese, S Korean and Chinese companies.
POSCO is the largest LIB anode manufacturer ex-China. They ultimately source cSPG (coating agent is largely pitch/asphalt).
The financial upside for EGR in extending from SPG producer to cSPG producer is HUGE. The HPA SPG coating colllaboration between EGR and FYI is at R&D stage - if it progresses successfully and is tacked on to EGRs SPG production line, both companies will profit greatly.
EGR's proprietary SPG flowsheet is already proven to yield superior product (to that derived from industry standard HF processing). Hopefully the FYI-EGR collaboration will develop a superior coating agent.
FYI Price at posting:
32.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
