Natural Graphite Materials Market to experience an impressive growth of Healthy CAGR during 2016–2021

The Global Natural Graphite Market: Highlights

Natural graphite is a form of carbon where atoms are arranged in the layers that have weak bonds between each other. Natural graphite has three principal types: Amorphous, Flake, and Vein. Each natural graphite type has distinctive characteristics and is formed in unique geologic settings. Natural graphite production is mainly from small underground mines in China. China is the world’s largest producer of natural graphite for both amorphous and flake graphite, and accounts for more than 65% of total global natural graphite production. Other countries with good natural graphite production include Brazil, North Korea, Canada, India, Romania, Ukraine, Mexico, Madagascar, Austria, Turkey, and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is the only country that produces high quality vein graphite.

Market Segments

The price of natural graphite is dependent on two variables; size and purity. Large size (+80 mesh) and high Carbon content (+94%) leads to premium pricing. Average prices of flake graphite have fallen continuously from the peak observed in 2011.

Currently, refractory is the largest application of natural graphite. However, it has continuously lost market share during 2011–2015 and is expected to lose further in the next five years. The decline is due to the reduced demand of refractories from steel industry and slower economic growth in China.

Batteries are currently the hot topic in the natural graphite market. All of the major natural graphite producers are discussing about the growth potential of natural graphite in the batteries for the automotive and other industries, such as consumer goods. Battery is an application where both natural and synthetic graphite are used and truly compete with each other. There will be a continued shift in graphite market away from amorphous natural graphite towards flake and synthetic graphite as emerging applications like batteries typically require large flake and high-purity grades.

Tesla Motors with Panasonic and other strategic partners started building its lithium-ion battery called Gigafactory near northern Nevada, US. Company will start manufacturing Gigafactory battery on the limited production basis from 2016 which will be fully streamlined by 2020 with the total capacity of 35 GWh (Gigawatt hours). A Gigafactory battery uses about 96 kg of graphite and has the potential to double the world supply of lithium-ion batteries. Company estimates that it will produce about 500,000 electric vehicles in 2020 that translates into the need of 48,000 tons of graphite.

Players

The key natural graphite manufactures are South Graphite, Heilongjiang Aoyu Energy, Nacional de Grafite, Qingdao Haida Graphite, Graphite India, Hunan Chenzhou Lutang Crystallitic Graphite & Carbon, Hubei Hengda Graphite Shareholding, Eagle Graphite, and Ashbury Graphite Mills.

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