Metals & Mining Theme, Non-Ferrous

March 12, 2024

Platts to launch daily natural flake, spherical graphite price assessments

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, will publish daily natural flake graphite and spherical graphite spot price assessments on a FOB China and a CIF Northeast Asia basis, effective March 18, 2024.

The launch is in response to industry demand for greater price transparency in the graphite spot market, in view of graphite's importance in electric vehicle batteries. Graphite plays a critical role in the electric vehicle supply chain. It is used as the anode in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and comprises about a quarter of a battery's volume.

Global electric vehicle sales are forecast to grow 40% to 13.3 million units in 2024, according to S&P Global Mobility, implying greater demand for graphite.

The locational bases of the assessments reflect China's role as the largest producer and exporter of graphite, and that of Japan and South Korea as among the two largest importers globally.

The launch of graphite assessments will complement Platts existing suite of daily battery metals and black mass price assessments.

The assessments will have the following specifications:

Assessment Name

Symbols

 Frequency Quality Volume Dimensions Incoterms Location Timing Payment Terms Unit of measurement
Flake Graphite FOB China BATAA00(Monthly averageBATAA03) Daily 94%-95% Carbon, -100 Mesh Size Minimum 20mt Powder packed in bags FOB Qingdao, China Loading within 30 days LC at sight $/mt
Flake Graphite CIF Northeast Asia BATBA00(MAvg BATBA03) Daily 94%-95% Carbon, -100 Mesh Size Minimum 20mt Powder packed in bags CIF Northeast Asia normalized to Japan main ports Arriving 15-60 days forward LC at sight $/mt
Spherical Graphite FOB China BATAB00(MAvg BATAB03) Daily 99.95% Carbon, 15 microns, uncoated Minimum 20mt Powder packed in bags FOB Qingdao, China Loading within 30 days LC at sight $/mt
Spherical Graphite CIF Northeast Asia BATBB00(MAvg BATBB03) Daily 99.95% Carbon, 15 microns, uncoated Minimum 20mt Powder packed in bags CIF Northeast Asia normalized to Japan main ports Arriving 15-60 days forward LC at sight $/mt

The first monthly average calculations will update at the end of April 2024, reflecting the average of daily assessments published throughout April.

Platts spot price assessments consider market information reported to Platts and published throughout the day, including firm bids and offers, transactions and indications. Other data deemed relevant to the assessment process may also be normalized to Platts specifications based on price differentials prevailing in the market. Market information received up to 4:30pm Singapore (0830 GMT) timestamp will be considered for the daily assessments.

A full description of Platts assessments methodology and data hierarchy can be found here.

Platts first proposed to launch these price assessments Feb. 27, via a subscriber note available here: https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/022724-platts-proposes-to-launch-daily-natural-flake-spherical-graphite-price-assessments.

The assessments will be published on Platts Connect, Platts Market Center, Platts Metals Daily, Platts Nonferrous Metals Alert and in the Platts price database.

Please send all comments and questions to battery_metals@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing. Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.