A “tidal wave” of natural flake graphite

With the continuous development of new energy, the demand for natural flake graphite is getting higher and higher, the scenery along the way, no matter how enchanting and rich lasting appeal, can not stop the high-speed forward train. Just like the new energy power battery market in the first half of the year, even if it is warm and hot, it can not stop the flow of time.

In the hot summer of July, new energy power battery market demand continues to increase, still showing a shortage of upstream and downstream supply scenes.

In fact, the market is in short supply, the core reason is the rapid growth of global new energy vehicle sales expectations and the head of power battery enterprises to step up production capacity release, while the planning of new capacity increase.

Policy help will also be crucial.

Across major regions of the world, including China, Europe, and the United States, the policy push for electrification continues to intensify, driving the rapid development of the power battery market.

Specific to the lithium anode market, the monthly output and comprehensive operating rate of enterprises are rising.

Data from Baichuan Yingfu showed that the output in June increased 95.39% compared with the same period in 2020, and the operating rate was close to 90%, basically full production and full sales.

Meanwhile, according to sinfern Information forecast, the domestic lithium battery output is expected to exceed 300GWh in 2021, and the demand for natural flake graphite will increase by about 14.3% year on year. It is expected that the domestic natural flake graphite output will continue to improve in 2021, and the import volume may increase.

At present, the domestic market, lithium anode is mainly artificial graphite, but the market share of natural flake graphite is likely to increase in the future.

1. The performance of natural flake graphite is accelerating in all directions

Compared with artificial graphite, natural flake graphite has good low-temperature performance, small DCR, good power rate, and good processability, but lacks rate performance, cycle performance, and high-temperature performance. Each side has its own advantages, which cannot be replaced accordingly.

On the one hand, learn from each other.

Natural flake graphite can be combined with artificial graphite, learn from each other, or performance improvement, expand the scope of natural flake graphite market application. For example, our company Beitrui for low expansion, long cycle, and other traditional natural flake graphite performance defects, through modification and other technical means, to achieve the same level as artificial graphite, has been widely recognized by the market.

On the other hand, the pursuit of cost-effectiveness.

According to the development trend of the new energy lithium battery industry, the market demands more and more cost-effective power batteries. The development of low cost, high performance than natural graphite, just can fill this gap, to meet the application needs of more customers in low-end new energy vehicles and other markets.

2. The low energy consumption of natural flake graphite is more in line with policy requirements

From the “double carbon” background, relative to artificial graphite, natural graphite’s low energy consumption is more in line with the policy requirements.

China is determined to achieve a peak in CO2 emissions by 2030, offset carbon emissions by 2060 through afforestation, energy conservation, and emission reduction measures, and achieve a balance between output and emission reduction.

This means that policies to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions will be increasingly stringent. Only projects with low energy consumption have passed the environmental assessment to ensure stable production.

For example, on July 5, 21st Century Business Reported that one of the core reasons for the temporary suspension of the world’s largest coal chemical project was that the evaluation procedures had not been resolved.

Artificial graphite in the production and processing process, involved in electricity consumption ratio and carbon emissions. Especially graphite chemical sequence, often to ten thousand degrees of electricity to calculate. Under the guidance of the national “dual carbon” target, it is likely to impose significant constraints on the production of artificial graphite.

Accordingly, natural flake graphiteore is formed naturally under special geological conditions such as high temperature and high pressure, and its structure is lamellar stone ink crystal.

Subsequent processing into natural flake graphite anode generally does not involve a high-temperature graphitization process, energy consumption and carbon emission intensity are much lower, more in line with the development orientation of national policy.

3. Natural graphite has unique advantages in the stability of the raw material supply chain

New energy power battery industry development to this stage, the stability of the supply chain is crucial.

For natural graphite, the world’s largest reserves of the country are China, the core is distributed in the northeast of the Heilongjiang River Basin, its main type of flake graphite, to ensure the supply of no big problem.

In addition, microcrystalline graphite is a kind of natural flake graphiteore juxtaposed of flake graphite. Even if one-day scale graphite production crisis, you can also consider using microcrystalline graphite for a certain degree of replacement.

The production and processing process of natural flake graphite is relatively simple, and the quality is easier to control. When the power battery market develops to the TWh era, the advantage of a stable supply of natural flake graphite will be more obvious.

On the whole, driven by the strong demand of downstream battery enterprises and the construction of a green and beautiful world by human beings, the “opportunity” wave of natural flake graphite is hitting.

In this regard, as the world’s leading new energy materials enterprise, our company has a vertical integrated industrial chain from graphite ore to finished products in natural graphite, which can ensure stable supply, process control, and quality assurance through the business model of a complete value industrial chain.