China Steel Chemical Corp (中碳), a subsidiary of steelmaker China Steel Corp (中鋼), yesterday said it plans to triple its mesophase graphite powder capacity this year to meet growing demand for lithium batteries used in electric buses, racing cars and storage systems for wind turbines.
The Kaohsiung-based company plans to expand its mesophase graphite powder capacity to 6,000 tonnes by next quarter from 2,000 tonnes at its factory in Pingtung County’s Fangliao Township (枋寮), allowing customers to verify its products in the second half of this year, it said.
Revenue contribution from carbon materials, including the company’s new mesophase graphite powder business and graphite blocks, is expected to increase from 10 percent of its revenue in January to November last year, China Steel Chemical said.
Photo courtesy of China Steel Chemical Corp
KEY MATERIAL
Mesophase graphite powder is a key raw material for negative electrode material used in lithium batteries.
The company’s products can help boost a battery’s capacity 1.33 times to more than 480 milliampere-hour (mAh) per gram of negative electrode material, from 360mAh, it said.
China Steel Chemical is expanding its graphite crucibles capacity to cope with increasing demand from customers, who use graphite blocks to make graphite crucibles for semiconductor companies to make silicon-carbide chips.
Customers’ lithium batteries are also used in racing cars and supercars, in addition to smart meters and uninterruptible power supply devices, it said.
The company has shipped mesophase graphite powders to customers in the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Thailand, it said.
MARGINS
The company’s carbon materials business delivered a lower margin of 19.3 percent compared with the corporate average of 25.4 percent during the first 11 months of last year, with the coal tar business delivering a much higher margin of 34.5 percent.
Overall revenue last year declined 20.48 percent to NT$8.32 billion (US$265.4 million) from NT$10.46 billion in 2022, it said. Pretax profit fell about 16.43 percent to NT$1.73 billion last year, compared with NT$2.07 billion the previous year, company data showed.
The company has an optimistic outlook about petrochemicals and carbon materials this year, it said last month.
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