syr - meeting competitors head-on?

SYR has been notably gentlemanly in describing its results, going to considerable lengths to not respond to some of the more extravagant claims that have been made, especially about purity, and market preferences.

Two statements in the latest announcement suggest that SYR may now be going on the front foot, and meeting these claims with some solid evidence of its own. Two quotes from the announcement will show what I mean:

What does the market really want?

"Although the market perception that very coarse flake graphite is the desired product from a buyer’s
perspective, the reality is that the graphite market is relatively evenly divided by buyers requiring coarse,
medium and fine flake graphite. Different size fractions sell at different prices. Many buyers choose to use
finer flake due to the lower price. Syrah has graphite that ranges in size from jumbo to very fine and its
assemblage broadly represents the market demand across the different categories of flake graphite."

Can SYR produce high purity graphite?

"Syrah is able to upgrade its graphite concentrate to a grade of 99.9% C using a simple chemical wash
operating at low temperature (<90degC). There is a misnomer in the market that it is difficult to achieve
these types of results. Graphite is inert whereas certain acids can dissolve almost all other minerals
impurities. Therefore, the reality is that it is quite easy to obtain such results using chemical treatment."

What is also very obvious is that the company is firmly focused on costs, prices and market size - not blue sky stuff, but the basics of a good business.

Cheers, Prime1