Amidst the tug-of-war between supply-demand pattern and production costs, graphitisation tolling services prices remained stagnant this week [SMM Weekly Review of Lithium Battery Graphite Market]

SMM, May 8:

This week, graphitisation prices remained stable. On the supply and demand side, as coke prices fell, anode producers actively increased their operating rates, leading to a slight increase in demand for graphitisation tolling services. However, in the short term, the new demand is unlikely to effectively absorb the overcapacity, and the market imbalance of oversupply still exists. Meanwhile, as electricity costs for graphitisation are expected to decline in May, this will directly reduce the production costs of graphitisation tolling service providers. Therefore, despite the increase in demand, under the influence of falling costs and overcapacity, graphitisation tolling prices are unlikely to rise this week. Looking ahead, on the demand side, based on the depletion of previous inventories and the current downward trend in coke prices, anode material producers are expected to increase their production schedules. However, due to uncertainties such as tariffs, the increase in anode production schedules may be limited. On the supply side, amidst a slight increase in demand and the favorable condition of declining electricity costs, graphitisation tolling service providers may leverage economies of scale to increase their operating rates and reduce production costs. In summary, the reduction in graphitisation tolling production costs, coupled with the accelerated integration of the industry, may drive anode producers to have a strong desire to drive down prices. However, graphitisation producers have been operating at high costs for an extended period and are already facing a severe imbalance between profits and losses, which may support graphitisation tolling prices. Therefore, under the mutual checks and balances of multiple forces, it is expected that graphitisation tolling prices will remain stagnant in the subsequent period.
 

SMM New Energy Research Team

Wang Cong 021-51666838

Ma Rui 021-51595780

Feng Disheng 021-51666714

Lv Yanlin 021-20707875

Zhou Zhicheng 021-51666711

Zhang Haohan 021-51666752

Wang Zihan 021-51666914

Wang Jie 021-51595902

Xu Yang 021-51666760

Xu Mengqi 021-20707868