"Black gold" export control, China grasps the "seven inches" of science and technology

Graphite has once again attracted the attention of the capital market.

A few days ago, graphite export control measures have been optimized, canceling the temporary control of five kinds of low-sensitive graphite items mainly used in the basic industries of the national economy such as iron and steel, metallurgy, and chemical industry, such as carbon electrodes for furnaces, and increasing the control of three kinds of highly sensitive graphite items such as spheroidized graphite.

This means that low-end graphite is released and high-end graphite is regulated.

01

"Black gold" in the field of science and technology

Graphite is an important strategic resource.

According to Baidu Encyclopedia, graphite is an allotrope of carbon, which has many characteristics such as high temperature resistance, thermal shock resistance, electrical conductivity, lubricity, chemical stability and plasticity; Natural graphite comes from graphite deposits, and can also be made into artificial graphite by using petroleum coke, asphalt coke, etc. as raw materials.

In the early days, graphite was mainly used in traditional industries, involving pencils, casting, sealing, lubrication, refractories and other fields, and then expanded to new materials, new energy, high-end equipment manufacturing, involving optoelectronics, nuclear power, power batteries, aerospace and military industry, biomedicine and other fields.

According to public information, in 2017, three-quarters of the consumption scenarios of graphite were traditional industries, the first major application scenario was refractories, and the high-end market accounted for only a quarter.

More importantly, Chinese companies have a market share of more than 8% of the anode materials for power batteries.

In this way, the importance of graphite is self-evident.   

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

As early as 2010, the European Union listed graphite as one of the 14 scarce mineral resources; By 2013, the United States listed graphite as one of the strategic minerals that is difficult to obtain; In 2016, Continental included graphite in the list of strategic minerals.

It is not difficult to see that graphite has become a wrestling field for the great power game.

According to the statistics of the United States Geological Survey, by the end of 2022, the world's proven natural graphite resource reserves were about 330 million tons, and Turkey's graphite resource reserves ranked first in the world, accounting for 27.3%; Brazil ranked second, accounting for 22.4%; China ranked third, accounting for 15.8%.

So, China regulates, can Turkey fill the position?

An industry insider said: "Graphite resources are unevenly distributed, mainly concentrated in a few countries, although Turkey has the largest reserves, but it is dominated by cryptocrystalline graphite, the economic value is low, and the mining significance is not great; China is dominated by crystalline graphite, which has a high economic value, so it has become the largest producer and exporter of graphite. ”

From this point of view, Turkey cannot fill the position.

02

Enhance the competitiveness of Chinese enterprises

At present, China's graphite exports have undergone subtle changes: natural graphite has shown a downward trend since 2018, while artificial graphite exports have shown an upward trend.    

"Longzhong Information" said: "Although the mainland is a big country in graphite resources, it is not yet a graphite power, and there is a certain gap between high-end spheroidal graphite, fluorinated graphite and nuclear-grade graphite for batteries and foreign countries, and the deep processing technology of graphite needs to be further improved." ”

Despite this, China still has the "seven inches" of science and technology.

Without the support of China's high-quality flexible graphite, expanded graphite, and spheroidal graphite, the cost of manufacturing power batteries and photovoltaics in Europe and the United States will be higher, and the competitiveness will not be at the same level as China.

Ivan Lam, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said: "Graphite is widely used in the industrial sector and is in growing demand. We believe that the price of graphite will continue to rise in the future due to the imbalance between supply and demand. ”

Reflected in the capital market, it is the interest of the capital in graphite resources.

For example, Henan Wanguan, a subsidiary of Zhongyin Cashmere Industry, now has an annual production capacity of 15,000 tons of special graphite products, and has obtained relevant approvals for the production project of special graphite products with an annual output of 30,000 tons.

Source: Straight flush

For example, Baotailong has the exploration rights of 16.35 square kilometers of dense forest graphite, and the exploration work has been completed, in addition to the graphene production line with a production capacity of 50 tons/year of physical method and 100 tons/year of chemical method.

It should be noted that the market of graphite is dominated by free capital, with greater certainty, and can be shipped at any time.        

This article represents a personal opinion only and has nothing to do with this newspaper. The stock market is risky, investment needs to be cautious, this article is for reference only, the actual profit and loss is at your own risk.   

Editor|Zhang Yi

Audit|Wu Xin