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The push to loosen China’s stranglehold over the global battery supply chain has intensified after Washington agreed to fund a new US graphite factory to be built by an Australian group.
The US energy department has offered Novonix a conditional loan of $755mn to underwrite construction of a facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which will be the first large-scale synthetic graphite facility in North America when complete.
Chris Burns, chief executive of Novonix and a former Tesla engineer, said on Tuesday that the deal underscored the need to develop alternative supply chains for electric vehicles, noting that China’s market share for graphite used in car batteries was more than 95 per cent.
Beijing has wielded its dominance over graphite by putting export restrictions on the material, most recently tightening measures this month in retaliation against technology export controls by Washington.
“Recent announcements from China to further scrutinise the export of battery-grade graphite to the United States highlight the importance of domestic production of high-performance, battery-grade synthetic graphite,” said Burns.
The factory is expected to be capable of producing enough graphite to supply 325,000 EVs a year when at full capacity in 2028, according to Novonix.
Shares in the Brisbane-based battery materials company, which counts South Korea’s LG Energy Solution as a shareholder and has supply agreements with Panasonic and Stellantis, rose 9 per cent on Tuesday.
The funding agreement comes less than a week after Syrah Resources, another Australian graphite producer, entered talks with lenders including the US energy department after protests near its mine in Mozambique halted production and triggered a default on loans.
Among raw materials used in car batteries, graphite is the most difficult to source from countries outside China, a key condition for electric cars to secure up to $7,500 of tax credits per vehicle under Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
The carbon material, which is used in the battery’s anode, can either be mined naturally from deposits or produced from needle coke, a petroleum product.
China has a stranglehold over both processes, accounting for 86 per cent of natural graphite production and 80 per cent of synthetic graphite output. The country holds even higher shares of technological processes further down the supply chain, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
Burns told the Financial Times that China’s grip on the battery supply chain was a “glaring” issue when he worked at Tesla and argued that reliance on one territory for critical components was a problem for the global EV sector, regardless of geopolitics.
Because of China’s dominance, the US provided carmakers and battery manufacturers with a grace period until the end of 2027 during which EVs with Chinese graphite can still qualify for subsidies.
Novonix produces synthetic graphite, which carmakers have increasingly preferred because it helps cells to charge faster and last longer despite being more expensive.
However, uncertainty hangs over the future of the IRA measures for EVs. Rivals to Elon Musk’s Tesla would be hit with even greater losses on EV sales if the subsidies were removed under incoming president Donald Trump.
Burns said the funding arrangements Novonix had in place for the Tennessee project were now “set” and argued that projects designed to boost US jobs and strengthen the country’s supply chain were a “bipartisan issue”.
“If you step away from the noise, we continue to see that the battery and critical minerals sectors will be supported,” he said. “The question is how.”
