The development status of China’s artificial graphite industry

In a broad sense, artificial graphite refers to all graphite materials obtained by organic carbonization and graphitization high-temperature treatment; In a narrow sense, it refers to the block solid material prepared through the processes of batching, kneading, molding, carbonization, and graphitization with the carbonaceous raw materials with low magazine content as the aggregate and coal tar pitch as the binder. There are various types of artificial graphite, such as graphite electrodes and graphite anode, which are applied to different scenes according to their different characteristics. Artificial graphite is quite different from natural graphite in its crystal structure, organizational structure, physical morphology, and physical and chemical properties.

The process of artificial graphite is complex and needs to be produced through raw material pretreatment, granulation, graphitization, and finished product screening. Among them, graphitization processing is the most important production link. Increasing the self-supply proportion of graphitization can significantly reduce the production cost. Graphitization is a high-temperature treatment method. The higher the thermal temperature, the higher the degree of graphitization. However, it is extremely power-consuming and belongs to a high-energy production link. In the process of artificial graphite, the graphitization cost is the highest, accounting for about 60% of the manufacturing cost of artificial graphite.

Artificial graphite is better than natural graphite in cycle performance, safety performance, and charge-discharge ratio. It has become the main cathode material and is mostly used in power batteries and medium and high-end consumer lithium batteries. With the sharp increase in the demand for new energy vehicles at downstream terminals, the shipment of artificial graphite in China also increased. From 2017 to 2021, the shipment increased from 100000 tons to 605000 tons, an increase of 295000 compared with 2020, with a year-on-year growth rate of 95.2%, and the shipment nearly doubled. However, there is still pressure on supply and demand in the domestic graphite market. Recently, the supply and demand atmosphere has become tenser, and the gap has widened again. Relevant negative electrode material enterprises began to choose graphitization OEM to increase production capacity.

From the perspective of the shipment structure of the whole lithium battery cathode material breakdown products, although the proportion of various types of cathode materials is constantly adjusting, artificial graphite is the mainstream of the market and the market share is rising. From 2019 to 2021, the proportion increased from 78.5% to 83.6% and then to 84.0%, gradually stabilizing the market share of more than 80%. At present, the new energy vehicle industry continues to enjoy a high boom, and the scale of the artificial graphite industry will continue to expand in the future.

Under the “double carbon” policy, negative electrode material enterprises carried out environmental protection production. Superimposed on the outbreak of market demand, there was a tense situation between the supply and demand of negative electrode materials. The average price of natural graphite and artificial graphite increased by different ranges compared with the previous year, reaching 35000 yuan/ton and 50000 yuan/ton respectively. There are many production links of artificial graphite, and the production cost is high, resulting in the average price being higher than that of natural graphite.

To alleviate the continuous tension of graphitization, the artificial graphite negative electrode enterprises scale up the integrated production expansion project, actively layout the production base to improve the industrial chain, strengthen the scale and cost advantages of artificial graphite, and realize a 100% self-supply rate of graphite as far as possible. This expansion trend may be the long-term trend of the industry in the future. In 2022, many artificial graphite negative electrode head enterprises accelerated the expansion of graphitization capacity, including Shanshan Co., Ltd., Zhongke electric, xiangfenghua, etc.