RE:More on China domestic demand of Graphite AnodesI did more research and it seems I am not the only one was worried about the future of graphite supply in China, here is another (old 2015) article raising similar concerns, however from an environmental point of view, regarding BYD ambitious plans to add 6 GWh battery capacity each year until 2020, and the ramifications for Graphite demand / pollution in China. This is an old article, BYD ambitions have sure been increased since then ! CATL is expecting 50 GWh by 2020, IMO BYD wont do less than 50 GWh by 2020 to compete with CATL, otherwise they will loose market share. So here we go : another 60.000 tpa of graphite anode demand from another chinese battery producer by 2020 ! A minimum of 120.000 tpa of spherical graphite will be recquired by just two chinese battery manufacturers (CATL and BYD).
The author in his conclusion asks the following question :
what are mining companies going to go for, profits or environmentally-friendly mining practices? Will graphite rain become an even bigger problem? Of course now we know the answer, the Chinese governement answred it by imposing draconian environmental regulation and taxation on graphite miners. In other words, Chinese spherical graphite producers will see their costs of production increased and their capacity to increase cheap production limited. Welcome to the new era ! are investors prepared ?
BYD’s New Gigafactory Could Lower Lithium-Ion Battery Prices
https://www.greenoptimistic.com/lithium-ion-battery-pricing-china/#.WXRd8_k1-Uk
As discussed, one of the things that keeps electric vehicles expensive, particularly with regard to their range per charge, is the price of lithium-ion battery packs.
Chinese automaker BYD already produced a number of electric vehicles, even electric buses, and says it will triple its capacity in the next three years, putting it just about the same pace as the Tesla gigafactory, which is currently under construction in Nevada. When the Tesla lithium-ion battery factory is complete, by 2020, production is expected to reach 35 GWh/year (gigawatt-hours capacity per year), which would effectively double world production numbers in 2013.
Currently, BYD’s lithium-ion battery production is at 4 GWh/year, with plans to increase by 6 GWh, making for 10 GWh/year by the end of the year. BYD executives say that they can keep up this pace, adding 6 GWh/year production capacity each year, which would put it at 34 GWh/year by 2020.
Considering the multiple applications of the lithium-ion battery, from smartphones to smartgrids, and from electric cars to electric buses, increasing production will certainly drive down prices. In turn, decreased lithium-ion battery prices will improve electric vehicle adoption, renewable energy implementation, and more-efficient homes and businesses.
My only concern in all of this, not to mention other lithium-ion production facilities, may have to do with the extraction of graphite, a major component in lithium-ion battery production. Unregulated graphite mines have already been linked to so-called “graphite rain” in China, adding to an already-huge air quality problem in the country.
Just for comparison, the Nissan Leaf’s 24 kWh lithium-ion battery contains about 110 lb of graphite, which means that increasing BYD’s production, by 6 GWh/year for the next three years, will put a lot of demand on graphite mines. When mining companies are asked to supply the demand for an additional 14 tons of flake graphite each year, just counting BYD’s increased production rates, what are mining companies going to go for, profits or environmentally-friendly mining practices? Will graphite rain become an even bigger problem?