Natural Graphite Market - Latest Trends, Forecast, and Opportunity Analysis
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.
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.
Global Natural Graphite Market –
Insights by Application Type
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.
The natural graphite market offers a healthy growth opportunity during the
forecast period of 2016 to 2021. Refractory is expected to remain the largest
application of the natural graphite during the forecast period. Battery is
expected to experience the fastest growth with double digit rate in the next
five years.
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.
For more information, contactStratview Research
Email: sales@stratviewresearch.com
Direct: +1-313-307-4176
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