South Korea is looking to African countries to secure graphite as China tightens its exports controls over the key material used in electric-vehicle batteries.
Mozambique and Tanzania are among countries that South Korea plans to tap into to address potential shortfalls, the trade ministry said Monday in a statement. Last week China strengthened export controls on some categories of graphite in a move it said will “safeguard national security and interests.”
China is the world’s largest producer of graphite and its announcement has raised alarm among major South Korean battery makers. Beijing said it will place graphite deemed highly sensitive under “dual-use item” export controls from Dec. 1.
Tirupati Graphite PLC (LON:TGR) is a fully integrated specialist graphite and graphene producer, with operations in Madagascar and India. The Company is delivering on this strategy by being fully integrated from mine to graphene. Its global multi-location operations include primary mining and processing in Madagascar, hi-tech graphite processing in India to produce specialty graphite, and a state-of-art graphene and technology R&D center to be established in India.