China’s new restrictions on graphite exports are “a very big deal” for the EV industry.
The global supply of graphite, a critical component of Li-ion battery anodes, could soon represent a major bottleneck for EV production.
Supply chain experts have been sounding alarms about graphite for some time. Some months ago, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence was already reporting that “the potential graphite supply crunch is arguably one of the most acute and underappreciated across all battery raw materials.”
Efforts to build domestic graphite supply chains are already underway, but much more needs to be done. “This announcement is a loud wakeup call and a national security issue for the US and Canada,” says DeMaio. “Many graphite miners and processors were already looking to North America to expand and diversify their capacity to mine and process graphite outside China. But this announcement highlights the need for North America to have a graphite supply chain independent of China in a way that’s clear even to people not in the graphite trenches.”
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