On Tuesday the American Anode Material Producers filed a petition calling for an anti-dumping investigation with punitive tariffs of up to 920% on Chinese graphite, acccording to reporting by Bloomberg and an announcement from the producers' lawyers, Buchanan.
A ninefold increase in graphite pricing would double the cost of a US-made EV battery. While the US produces no natural graphite, synthetic material from China is subject to a 25% levy, imposed during the first Trump administration in 2018. Tesla and two Korean battery firms have been lobbying for exemptions, asserting that nascent US synthetic graphite capacity is inadequate.
In its 2022 natural graphite survey, the US Geological Survey says at full capacity, US lithium-ion battery manufacturing plants are expected to require 1.2 million tons per year of spherical purified graphite. From this total, 40-60% is estimated to come from synthetic graphite. China produces over 80 percent of all Natural and Synthetic graphite.
Synthetic graphite is produced by heating petroleum coke feedstock to 3,000 degrees Celsius. Battery Power Online states the graphite anode is responsible for 50% of the CO2 emissions from battery production, and that synthetic graphite is often processed with coal power in Mongolia and the Uyghur Regions of Western China.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law assigned $6 billion in total funding for battery material processing and manufacturing.
Anovion Battery Materials announced it was getting a $117 million grant under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to build a 35,000 tonnes-per-year synthetic graphite manufacturing facility — an expansion of its existing plant near Niagara Falls, New York, which opened in early 2021. Recently, the company announced plans for an $800 million investment in a new manufacturing facility in Southwest Georgia.
The second anode manufacturing facility in the United States opened in Chattanooga, Tennessee in November 2021. Novonix’s ‘Riverside Recharged’ was originally planned as an $20 million retrofit of a former nuclear turbine manufacturing plant The company was awarded a $100 million grant and selected for a $103 million investment tax credit for the Riverside facility. This week the US Deparment of Energy offered Novonixa $755 million loan via its Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program to support construction of the proposed new plant.
In terms of natural graphite, Syrah Resources’ active anode material (AAM) facility in Vidalia, Louisiana is reported to have received $107 million in grants from the Energy Department. Feedstock for the plant comes from Syrah’s Balama graphite mine in Mozambique. Last week Syrah halted production and defaulted on its loans due to civil unrest near its mine.
Investigation Nos. 701-TA-752 and 731-TA-1730 (Preliminary) [Link]
The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed criminal complaints in France and Belgium against subsidiaries of Apple, accusing it of using conflict minerals. Apple is complicit in crimes committed by armed groups that control some of the mines in the east of DR Congo, according to the complaints, first reported by BBC News.
Apple, responding to the allegations, acknowledged that like other technology firms, it indirectly sources minerals from Congo and neighboring Rwanda through a complex network of intermediaries, including trading posts, refineries, and smelters.
The lawyers representing Congo said on Wednesday they welcomed that statement with "satisfaction and caution.... Apple's statements about changes to its supply chain will have to be verified on the ground, with facts and figures to support them," the lawyers said in a statement to Reuters.
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