Bit of a selective posting there Neutro?You left the second half...

Bit of a selective posting there Neutro?
You left the second half of the article out!

But every upside has a downside, and according to Fastmarkets, producing synthetic graphite has quite a few drawbacks including the fact that it is a costly, power-intensive andenvironmentally unfriendlyprocess.

“Natural graphite enjoys a cost advantage relative to synthetic graphite, with natural graphite roughly half the cost of synthetic graphite. The increased use of silicon in anodes is still largely under development but in the future, if this technology is more widely adopted, natural graphite performs better than synthetic graphite with silicon in the anode,” the review reads.

In addition to the cost issue, synthetic graphite supply iscentred in China, which is at odds with North American and European automakers’ desire for more localized supply.

According to the market intelligence firm, although natural graphite supply is also dominated by China, with approximately 62% of total supply in 2020, new natural graphite projects are more diverse, withnumerous projects in Africahelping to diversify the supply base, andpotential projects in North Americaand Europe helping to provide the localization of supply to major automakers.

“Both synthetic graphite and natural graphite will remain critical materials for anodes in the EV battery industry, with the supply of both materials forecast to rise to meet surging demand from the EV sector,” Fastmarkets points out.

“The ability of graphite supply to rise with demand in the coming years will also help to keep prices less volatile than in other battery raw material markets and will protect the industry from substitution by competing anode technologies in the longer term.”

Natural, synthetic graphite needed by EV sector – report - MINING.COM