China restricts exports of graphite used to make battery anodes
China’s commerce ministry has put the world’s battery industry on notice by restricting the export of some graphite materials that are used to make anodes for lithium-ion batteries. The move is calling attention to China’s dominance of the market and providing a push to establish graphite processing outside the country.
Graphite anodes can be produced from synthetic graphite—made by heating petroleum coke—or from mined graphite flakes. Graphite flakes must be milled into spherical particles and then coated with carbon. Both forms are mixed with binders to create a battery anode.
Graphex Technologies is building facilities in Michigan that will produce spherical and carbon-coated natural graphite. CEO John DeMaio says the Chinese restrictions only emphasize the need for what the company already has planned.
“We saw the size of the opportunity here in North America,” he says. “We knew there was going to be a need for a localized supply chain.”
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