On October 20, China issued the “Announcement on Temporary Export Control Measures for Graphite Items.”
This means that China will bring highly sensitive graphite items into formal control, such as “three high” graphite with military uses, and remove graphite items used in the national economy from the control list, thereby achieving optimized management.
Graphite anodes
Characteristics
Among them, items that meet the following characteristics may not be exported without permission:
- High-purity (purity>99.9%), high-strength (flexural strength>30Mpa), high-density (density>1.73g/cubic centimeter) artificial graphite materials and their products (H.S Code: 3801100030, 3801909010, 6815190020)
- Natural flake graphite and its products (including spheroidized graphite, expanded graphite, etc.) (H.S Code: 2504101000, 2504109100, 3801901000, 3801909010, 3824999940,
6815190020)
The above policy will be officially implemented from December 1, 2023.
What impact ?
The introduction of the policy quickly triggered industry concerns about export restrictions on anode materials, lithium batteries and other related products.
So, what impact will the above measures have on the export of lithium batteries and anode materials?
Relevant people in the anode materials industry said that this optimization and adjustment of export controls on graphite items will have basically no impact on lithium battery anode material companies.
- First of all, the policy clarifies the specifications of high purity (purity>99.9%), high strength (flexural strength>30Mpa), high density (density>1.73g/cubic centimeter), artificial graphite and its products.
The above parameters are not conventional indicators for artificial graphite used as lithium battery negative electrode materials.
They are mainly products such as graphite sheets and graphite blocks. They are more likely to affect graphite items used in high-precision fields such as aviation and military industry.
Natural flake graphite and its products are mainly used in advanced refractory materials and coatings in the metallurgical industry. - Secondly, there were previous requirements for export licenses for artificial graphite.
At present, anode material manufacturers with overseas business basically have artificial graphite export licenses.
This time the adjustment should focus more on natural graphite and related export tax rebate policies. - Third,this policy is an optimization and adjustment of Policy No. 50 of 2006.
Three highly sensitive graphite items, including spheroidized graphite, which were previously subject to temporary control, are officially included in the export control list of dual-use items.
At the same time, the temporary control of low-sensitive graphite items related to basic industries of the national economy.
Generally speaking, the introduction of this policy is an optimization and update of the previous policy, which standardizes the export and traceability of graphite. It has no obvious impact on anode materials and lithium battery companies.
