Unlock Editor’s Digest Lock for Free
FT editor Roula Khalaf will select your favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Shares of non-Chinese graphite producers surged on Friday after the US announced its dumping duties for 93.5% imports of minerals essential to electric vehicle batteries from China.
Australia-listed Syrah Resources, the largest non-Chinese graphite miner, rose 22%, while Canada’s Nouveau Monde Graphite jumped 26% as investors bet that it could help investors compete with dominant Chinese rivals. Novonix, a double producer in Australia and the US, won 15%, while the future of Korean Posco rose by 20%.
The US Department of Commerce said Thursday it would impose a 93.5% tariff on anode active materials from China covering graphite imports after a group representing North American graphite producers called for an investigation into alleged dumping of the minerals in China.
“This is clearly a positive development for the sector,” said Ben Lions, director of equity research at investment bank Jalden. The US government’s move towards rare earths, and now graphite, he said, has demonstrated a strategic intention to source more important materials from non-Chinese sources. “Their intended to promote the former China supply chain is a very strong signal,” Lions said.
The move to raise the US total tariff rate on China’s graphite to 160% comes after confirming new restrictions this week on exports of technology essential to making cutting-edge lithium-iron phosphate batteries.
These LFP batteries have a low-cost chemical composition that has supported China’s rise as a global electric vehicle powerhouse.
The anode is widely regarded as the most difficult part of the battery to reduce the West’s dependence on China, due to its almost complete control of the Chinese group on low prices and global supply.
According to a survey by market information provider SNE, Chinese companies accounted for 95% of the global anode market for the first five months of 2025 and the first five months of 2025, while Korean companies were led by Posco and Daejoo, accounting for 2.7%, while Japanese manufacturers accounted for 2%.
UBS’ Hong Kong-based battery analyst Tim Bush said efforts to build non-Chinese anode supply chains in Asia and North America are “harmed by US automakers trying to take on the costs.”
This partially reflects skepticism among battery and electric vehicle producers about North American producers’ ability to supply the battery-grade graphite they need.
Submitted to the US government earlier this year, Tesla said that U.S. graphite producers have yet to demonstrate their “technical ability to produce commercial quantities” of minerals “in the quality and purity required by Tesla and other battery manufacturers.”
Given the current shortage of non-Chinese anode suppliers, additional import costs are likely to stab Asian battery providers, including those serving American EV manufacturers such as Tesla, General Motors and Ford, and the additional costs could be passed on to US consumers.
The average EV battery contains 50-100 kilograms of graphite. This means that new tariffs could take up to 20% of the value of generous federal production credits introduced by the Biden administration and survived the passage of President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” from batteries and EV makers.
Recommended
Novonix CEO Michael O’Kronley said in a statement that the US move “emphasizes the strategic importance of building a domestic supply chain for critical minerals” in North America, including synthetic graphite.
Last year, the US Energy Agency agreed to lend more than $750 million to Australian companies to build the largest North America synthetic graphite factory based in Chattanooga after China set new restrictions on exports.
Matthieu Bos, CEO of Falcon Energy Materials, said that even with new tariffs, Western graphite producers will struggle with low cost and high quality at large scale production without relying on Chinese technical expertise.
“Everyone is popping champagne as stock prices rise, but we’ve been here before,” he said. “It’s always easier to mine a capital market than to build something.”
