China has unveiled plans to restrict exports of graphite — a mineral crucial to the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) — on national security grounds, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs said Friday.
The announcement comes just days after the United States imposed additional limits on the kinds of semiconductors that American companies can sell to Chinese firms.
“At the moment both China and Western countries are engaged in a tit for tat, highlighting how protectionist measures often spread. Newton’s third law that every action causes a reaction applies here, too,” said Stefan Legge, head of tax and trade policy research at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland.
“At the same time, both sides of the dispute also realize how costly it is if geopolitics trumps economics,” he added.
China, which dominates the world’s production and processing of graphite, says export permits will be needed, starting in December, for synthetic graphite material — including high-purity, high-strength and high-density versions — as well as for natural flake graphite.
The Institute for Energy Research, a Washington, DC-based research organization, says carmakers are trying to lock in supplies of graphite from sources outside of China, as demand for EV batteries outpaces other uses for the material.
Global sales of EVs, including purely battery-powered vehicles and hybrids, are soaring, according to the International Energy Agency.
Sales exceeded 10 million units last year, up 55% from 2021, and are expected to rise to nearly 14 million vehicles this year, it projected.
According to the US Geological Survey, the market for graphite used in batteries has grown 250% globally since 2018. China was the world’s leading graphite producer last year, accounting for an estimated 65% of global production, it said.
Besides EVs, graphite is commonly used in the semiconductor, aerospace, chemical and steel industries.
Gallium, germanium restrictions
The export curbs were announced as China faces pressure from multiple governments over its commercial and trade practices. For more than a year, it has been embroiled in a tech war with the United States and its allies in Europe and Asia over access to advanced chips and chipmaking equipment.
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.