Recently, Fastmarkets, a cross-commodity price reporting agency, provided an insightful overview of the developments in China’s anode market. The article also includes the market assessment from Legion Oil & Gas LLC Trading Director Yury Burenko.
Due to amplified production capacity and evolving feedstock trends in China, the anode market has transitioned its focus from natural material to synthetic graphite. And in response Fastmarkets will start to price assess petroleum needle coke and green petroleum coke on an ex-works China basis. Producers in China have responded to price surges by utilizing needle coke and low sulfur petroleum coke in the production of synthetic anode material. From the second half of 2022, the situation with raw materials began to change significantly due to an increase in prices for low-sulphur petroleum coke and needle coke.
According to the source, the prices of needle coke and low sulfur petroleum coke rose significantly by 100% to 11,000 yuan ($1,531) per tonne and 191% to 7,400 yuan per tonne, respectively, from the beginning of 2021 to July of 2022.
“Such high prices incentivized producers to try cheaper alternatives, such as low sulfur sponge coke, a feedstock usually used in the aluminium industry with a sulfur content of 3-3.5% max”, commented Yury Burenko, trading director at Legion Oil & Gas LLC.
Fastmarkets evaluted the uncoated graphite spherical 99.95% C, 15 microns, fob China market at $2,000-2,200 per tonne on July 20, 2023, down $1,100 from $3,100-3,300 per tonne on July 14, 2022.
According to Fastmarkets synthetic graphite consumption in battery industry to increase more than 3 times by 2025 comparing to 2021. Legion Oil & Gas LLC agrees with this numbers that’s why we pay such high attention to petroleum coke grades used in specialty applications, especially battery anodes.
Legion Oil & Gas LLC is also going to attend Fastmarkets European Battery Raw Materials Conference, which takes place on Sep 18-20, 2023 in Amsterdam. The Conference will provide the market forecast for European and global EV sales.
To meet Legion Oil & Gas LLC at the Conference in Amsterdam, schedule an appointment with us via Contacts.
