Western producers play catch up to Chinese manufacturers of spherical graphite ... China’s dominance of the world’s graphite industry is starting to spill over into value added products, new data from IM shows.
Research from The Natural Graphite Report 2012 documents the extent of the country’s dominance of spherical graphite production.
In 2011, China produced over 90% of the world’s uncoated spherical graphite produced from high quality flakes. Producers of lithium-ion batteries rely on the superior spherical graphite to produce high performance batteries for mobile energy and electric vehicles.
The non-Chinese graphite sector has used spherical graphite as its R&D battle ground in the last 18 months. An influx of junior miners, mainly from Canada, has seen a sharp increase of focus surrounding production techniques of battery grade material.
For many years western producers in Germany and the US have been attempting to develop more economic methods of producing spherical graphite without wasting 70% of the starting raw material, high quality flake product work in excess of $1,500/tonne. Present methods in China are unsustainable elsewhere in the world.
Graphite producers such as Graphit Kropfmühl, Superior Graphite, and Nacional de Grafite are developing production routes based on a more environmentally friendly method to acid-intensive practices Chinese companies’ use.
Canada-based junior Northern Graphite conducted significant research into new production methods using a larger size flake of +50 mesh sourced from its Bissett Creek project in Ontario.
Despite these efforts, no company outside of China has had sustained commercial success in this field.
The primary markets for battery-grade graphite are Japan and South Korea. Many of these companies purchase uncoated spherical graphite as a lower price to coated material needed for battery applications. Domestic coating facilities then finish the products for sale to the countries’ anode manufacturers.
These are the customers that new producers of spherical graphite want gain. But for now China is in a very strong position of exporting a higher value product instead of raw material, a position its government wants many of its other mineral industries to follow.
The Natural Graphite Report 2012 will be published by Industrial Minerals Research soon. It will be the world’s only report focusing solely and in detail on the natural graphite industry.
War zu erwarten. Viel Euphorie im Vorfeld der News und dann kam eine leichte Enttäuschung. Viele Anleger hatten mit höheren NPV, IRR und niedrigereren Cash Costs gerechnet..
Insiders Are Rushing to Produce More of This Rare Commodity
By Frank Curzio, editor, Phase 1 Investor Friday, July 6, 2012
"Right now is a great time to invest in graphite stocks,"Jeff Phillips told me this week.
Jeff is what I call an under-the-radar type of guy. You won't see his name mentioned much in the media. He's not like banking analyst Meredith Whitney or economist Nouriel Roubini – he doesn't seek the spotlight when making bold calls..
"..According to Jeff, most of the companies trying to capitalize on this trend will fall flat on their face. Production could be years away for most mines. Plus, it's difficult for these small, non-revenue-generating companies to raise money these days.
But the ones quickest to market will make an absolute fortune – since Europe and the U.S. would look to buy graphite from these companies immediately to avoid paying export duty and value-added taxes.."
In Kalifornien spielen Elektroautos eine immer größere Rolle. Damit werden auch mehr Lithium-Ionen-Akkus gebraucht, damit auch mehr Lithium und Graphit.
Kalifornien ist der Staat mit dem größten Autoabsatzmarkt in den USA, zugleich auch der Staat mit der schlechtesten Luft und den strengsten Emissionsvorschriften..
carpe_diem
: Li-Graphit-Batterien: 'Economies of scale' Reiz
Viele Batterien = sinkender Preis
Können die Hersteller größere Stückzahlen an Lithium-Ionen-Akkus produzieren, werden auch die Kosten sinken. Dies treibt dann wiederum den Absatz an. Ein gutes Szenario für die Rohstoffe Graphit und Lithium..
hier sieht es zur zeit nicht rosig aus. das volumen das in -d- gehandelt wird ist enorm klein. selbst die Nasdaq OTC Other gibt sich bescheiden. das graphit irgendeinmal einen anderen stellenwert als heute haben wird, daran glaube ich. was mich jedoch stört ist der rasannte kursverlust fast aller graphit werte. es sieht fast so aus ,das am anfang des jahres einige ??????? beschlossen haben graphitwerte ordentlich zu puschen und ordentlich abzusahnen. wer an einem vernünftigen und langfristigen investment intr. ist der handelt anders. aber nur meine meinung. was meint ihr?
aber der Graphit-Sektor ist auch besonder gut gelaufen. Jetzt geht er mit der ganzen Rohstoffbranche nach unten. Irgend wann trennt sich sicherlich die Spreu vom Weizen. Wer jetzt auf das richtige Pferd setzt, kann gute Gewinne machen...