【Graphite Export Control】After Export Controls: Overseas Enterprises May Stockpile in the Near Term

On October 20th, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued an announcement on the optimization and adjustment of temporary export control measures for graphite commodities, formally incorporating three highly sensitive graphite items, including spherical graphite, into the export control list for dual-use items;

At the same time, temporary controls on five low-sensitive graphite items, including electrode materials for furnaces, primarily used in the national economy's basic industries such as steel, metallurgy, and chemicals, were lifted.

Looking at the follow-up impact in the recent period: Firstly, for artificial graphite anode materials, the impact is relatively small. This is mostly because the controlled items in the policy do not involve artificial graphite used in lithium batteries. 

However, as this control explicitly specifies that natural flake graphite and its products (including spherical graphite, expanded graphite, etc.) (refer to customs commodity codes: 2504101000, 2504109100, 3801901000, 3801909010, 3824999940, 6815190020) must not be exported without permission, there remains uncertainty about the subsequent impact on overseas manufacturers that rely more on Chinese natural graphite.

According to research, most overseas manufacturers producing anodes mainly use natural graphite anodes, such as South Korea's POSCO. Due to factors such as environmental control overseas, they heavily depend on imported spherical graphite from China.

While overseas battery manufacturers are trending towards using artificial graphite anodes, in the short term, they still primarily rely on natural graphite anodes. They also depend on imports from Chinese companies.

Although this control does not completely restrict exports, for overseas companies, the policy has just been introduced, and there is still uncertainty about the approval cycle for export of products. Some overseas manufacturers have been observed to advance their shipments and increase safety stock levels in the near term. Feel free to contact us for more Graphite market reports.