China continues to ramp up natural graphite imports to meet rising domestic demand from its lithium-ion battery sector.

According to Roskill, monthly imports are now up 2000 per cent since the end of 2017, with almost all new supply coming from Mozambique and Madagascar.

  • Scroll down to see how ASX graphite stocks have performed over the past 6 months >>>

Prior to the end of 2017 China imported less than 1000 tonnes a year. In May 2019 imports exceeded  22,000t.

China has significant resources of battery-grade graphite, Roskill says, but many of the deposits being exploited are getting deeper and more expensive to mine.

“Coupled with rising environmental costs and other costs of production, China is looking increasingly to foreign sources of supply, in particular, those in Africa,” Roskill says.

In 2017, Western graphite’s own ‘tip of the spear’ Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR) began production at its large-scale Balama project in Mozambique.

The miner, which is still having trouble hitting production targets, ships most of its graphite into the Chinese battery industry.

Triton Minerals (ASX:TON) is also aiming to  get the Ancuabe graphite project in Mozambique up and running in late 2020.

In Madagascar, several companies are looking to ramp up production of flake graphite, including Bass Metals (ASX:BSM) and Blackearth Minerals (ASX:BEM).

Tanzania is also a real hotbed of ASX-listed graphite development, with players like Graphex Mining (ASX:GPX), Black Rock Mining (ASX:BKT), Kibaran Resources (ASX:KNL), Volt Resources (ASX:VRC) and Magnis Energy Technologies (ASX:MNS) all moving projects toward first production.

In June, David Christensen, boss of Australian based Renascor Resources (ASX:RNU), told Stockhead there was a “paradigm shift” happening where there won’t be enough graphite, either synthetic or natural, for the growing lithium-ion battery market.

“The demand is the growing use of graphite in lithium-ion batteries, whether it is synthetic or natural flake, and we’re reaching a tipping point,” he says.

“By 2021 it looks like the natural flake graphite market will be in slight undersupply, even with new projected supply from sources like Syrah, but by 2023 that becomes quite acute.”

NOW READ: As graphite approaches ‘tipping point’, buyers are eyeing Australia

 

Here’s a table of ASX stocks with exposure to graphite>>>

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort. Best viewed on a laptop:

Ticker Name 6 Month Return % 1 Year Return % Share Price [Wed July 24 intraday] Market Cap
WKT WALKABOUT RESOURCES 215 186 0.3 $99,791,088.00
AXE ARCHER EXPLORATION 92 33 0.15 $27,592,850.00
SRK STRIKE RESOURCES 48 19 0.068 $11,365,130.00
SVM SOVEREIGN METALS 46 31 0.12 $41,316,472.00
BKT BLACK ROCK MINING 34 81 0.084 $45,672,968.00
TLG TALGA RESOURCES 31 -22 0.45 $96,802,840.00
GPX GRAPHEX MINING 30 -19 0.23 $21,638,720.00
BEM BLACKEARTH MINERALS 17 -46 0.075 $6,508,598.50
CGN CRATER GOLD MINING 15 -25 0.015 $18,412,438.00
TON TRITON MINERALS 4 -10 0.052 $48,211,184.00
RNU RENASCOR RESOURCES 0 -5 0.017 $20,761,638.00
QGL QUANTUM GRAPHITE 0 -98 0.002 $15,321,162.00
KNL KIBARAN RESOURCES -8 -20 0.12 $35,114,516.00
LML LINCOLN MINERALS -17 -81 0.005 $2,874,918.50
VRC VOLT RESOURCES -17 0 0.019 $28,050,154.00
MNS MAGNIS ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES -32 -37 0.235 $143,616,960.00
PSM PENINSULA MINES -33 -67 0.003 $3,038,616.25
BAT BATTERY MINERALS -33 -56 0.014 $18,453,282.00
BSM BASS METALS -36 -68 0.009 $25,288,872.00
HXG HEXAGON RESOURCES -36 -50 0.093 $27,135,856.00
OAR OAKDALE RESOURCES -43 -29 0.012 $2,504,764.25
SYR SYRAH RESOURCES -45 -64 1.04 $429,909,376.00
MLS METALS AUSTRALIA -50 -63 0.002 $4,390,796.50
CRL COMET RESOURCES 7 -29 0.003 $6,910,000.00
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