Batteries and Graphite: how a little-known material can send electric cars into crisis
In the battery sector everyone is concentrated on lithium, yet there is another equally essential mineral: it is graphite , an essential component in the anode of batteries, that is the pole that produces electrons in a battery, the negative one. Without graphite there are no modern lithium batteries so the end of the "Electric Revolution".
In 2019, the global graphite market was valued at $ 14.9 billion. By 2027, it is expected to be valued nearly $ 22 billion, but higher growth is also expected.
Each EV battery contains 20-30% graphite, which means that the demand for graphite will increase along with the demand for EV, but both China and the US are struggling with a shortage of graphite. Yet this is but a pure and amorphous form of one of the most widespread elements in the world, carbon.
Currently about 90% of the graphite anodes used in batteries come from China and this creates a great dependence of the West on Beijing. Yet another contradiction, considering that it is only the famous "Carbon" that one would like to decarbonise. In the European industrial decadence, however, this too has been allowed to go to China.
Among the companies that have been in the industry for the longest time in the West is Graphex Group Ltd. They have been active since 2008 and have been developing methods for graphite processing since 2013. They are veteran manufacturers with major long-term contracts in China and work with some of the biggest family names.
They are now looking to enter US and European markets to help supply the growing battery manufacturing industry that is just beginning to take root, where new graphite supplies are undergoing a squeeze. Graphex President John DeMaio is pushing with the expansion of their US-based team to focus on North American and European expansion plans to be an integral part of the supply chain created to support the Western Electric Vehicle Industrial Complex currently under construction. .
Graphex believes the graphene market will see double-digit growth for the next 5 years with an estimated CAGR (Average Growth Rate) of 29%.
As the overall automotive market slumped during COVID, global sales of electric vehicles grew an astonishing 41% in 2020 to around 3 million electric cars and further growth is coming, says IHS Markit, spurred in part by important political incentives around the world.
So the graphite sector, just like the lithium sector, will be strategic in the near imprecise and incomplete future. Keep an eye on all projects related to this sector, and you may see some small deals.
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The article Batteries and Graphite: how a little-known material can send electric cars into crisis comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/batterie-e-grafite-come-un-materiale-poco-noto-puo-mandare-in-crisi-le-auto-elettriche/ on Thu, 23 Dec 2021 07:00:26 +0000.