China is fed up and keeps everything to itself. After restricting exports of gallium and germanium, China is now restricting graphite exports.
It’s all great, of course, that we are going to drive electric. But then we must have electric cars, of course. Now new EVs are springing up like mushrooms and they are often electric cars from Chinese brands.
Brands such as BYD, Zeekr, Lynk & Co and Nio are also making good progress in the Netherlands. These brands all come from China and that is no coincidence. Besides the fact that the Chinese government happily pumps money into its own car industry, there is something else going on.
To build electric cars you need batteries. And to make batteries you need raw materials. Just let China have a lot of the raw materials. They put them in their own battery packs and cars, but they also export those raw materials to Europe and the United States, among others.
Export restrictions
Earlier this year, the Chinese government already restricted the export of gallium and germanium, but now it’s graphite’s turn. From December 1, all exporters of graphite in China must apply for a permit before they can export the substance.
In defense of the new rules, the country argues that it is a matter of national interest and national security. Yes, they mainly want to safeguard their own economic interests, of course. And play a geopolitical game.
Research European Union
The government is also getting involved on this side of the world. For example, the European Union is now conducting research into Chinese cars on the European market. Chinese cars are much cheaper and compete unfairly on our continent. Car-producing countries such as France are now also thinking of ways to make their own electric cars more attractive to their own domestic consumers.
This research, however, has met with little understanding from the Chinese. The export restrictions may therefore simply be a response to teasing from the European Union.
United States
China and the United States have been on an economic collision course for some time and the export of graphite to America has also been placed under the same restrictions as of December 1 as exports to Europe.
This is also problematic for car manufacturers on the other side of the pond. Especially since China is by far the largest processor of natural graphite. In addition, the country is responsible for 70 percent of all synthetically produced graphite in the world the Financial Times calculates for us.
That synthetic graphite is made with petroleum, so not as clean if you want the raw materials for your emission-free car, but okay.
Other supplies
There are opportunities here in other places in the world. While China is the largest supplier of natural graphite with 65 percent, only 16 percent of the world’s supply can be found in China. A country like Turkey has no less than 27.3 percent of the graphite reserves and Brazil 22.4 percent.
So something will have to change in raw material production. At the moment, the battery industry is dependent on anodes and almost all of them come from China. This is not necessary at all, especially with reserves in other places in the world. Perhaps Erdogan sees a great opportunity here for his economy?
With the Chinese government’s announcement to limit graphite exports, shares of the China Graphite Group on the Hong Kong stock exchange shot up 10.7 percent. So the first winners have been announced, and they are not in the west.
This article Everything is for China and we get nothing first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
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