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					</table><p>The American Active Anode Material Producers (<a href="https://www.northerngraphite.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/American-Graphite-Producers-File-Trade-Case-with-U.S.-Government-Over-Chinas-Manipulation-of-Global-Graphite-Market.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AAAMP</a>) has filed petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission (<a href="https://www.usitc.gov/home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ITC</a>) seeking the imposition of 920% tariffs on imports of natural and synthetic graphite from China used to make lithium-ion battery anode material.</p>
<p>The demand for higher tariffs on graphite imports from China comes from years of significant volumes of &#8216;unfairly&#8217; priced Chinese imports of active anode material into the U.S., according to the petitioners.</p>
<p>The U.S.-based national law firm <a href="https://www.bipc.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Buchanan Ingersoll &amp; Rooney PC</a> has filed the petitions on behalf of AAAMP.</p>
<p>AAAMP has requested anti-dumping and countervailing duties to counter unfairly low-priced imports of active anode material.  Experts say that even with 920% of tariffs, China can absorb an additional 25% of the cost.</p>
<p>Active anode material is one of the primary components in lithium-ion batteries, which are used to power electric vehicles, consumer electric products, medical equipment, and various other applications.</p>
<p>Erik Olsen, an AAMP spokesperson, said, &#8220;AAAMP is filing this case to help protect the North American graphite industry, which is at risk of being smothered by China&#8217;s malicious trade practices. There is overwhelming evidence that China dumps artificially cheap graphite into global markets, which is made possible by state-sponsored policies and massive subsidies. Without trade relief from the U.S. government, the domestic graphite industry is in peril. China&#8217;s anti-competitive actions make it challenging for graphite producers to find secure financial footing, which prevents them from becoming established players in the global market.&#8221;</p>
<p>While most graphite from China is currently subject to 25% tariffs, the imposition of duty is inadequate. Fueled by state-sponsored industrial policies, low or no wage protections, and lack of environmental stewardship, China&#8217;s overcapacity in the battery industry has quadrupled in demand, according to recent data.</p>
<p>&#8220;China&#8217;s ability to overproduce goods is part of a concerted strategy made possible by massive subsidies and other financial incentives provided to companies by the Chinese government,&#8221; alleged AAMP.</p>
<p>Anti-dumping duties aim to offset the amount if a product is sold at less than fair value or &#8220;dumped&#8221; in the U.S. The Department of Commerce calculates the dumping margin. Countervailing duties are intended to offset unfair subsidies that a foreign government provides in the production of a particular good. The ITC determines whether the establishment of a domestic industry is materially retarded or if the industry is materially injured as a result of the unfairly traded imports.</p>
<p>The entire investigative process will take approximately one year, with final determinations of dumping, subsidization, and injury likely occurring near the end of 2025. Duties can be attached to imports of the active anode material as of the time of the preliminary determinations in the case.</p>
<p>ITC will determine if the graphite is being sold at less than fair value and if the Chinese government is subsidizing its production. Separately, the ITC will decide if the U.S. industry has been materially injured or whether the establishment of the domestic industry has been materially retarded by the unfairly priced imports.</p>
<p>If both the Commerce and ITC investigations prove conclusive, Commerce can assess additional tariffs required to offset the unfair pricing by the Chinese.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, the Department of Commerce recently <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-anti-dumping-duties-solar-cells" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> its preliminary affirmative determinations in the anti-dumping duty investigations of crystalline photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules, from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.</p>
<p>In October, the U.S. <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-slaps-anti-dumping-duties-on-indian-aluminum-extrusions-used-in-solar-racking" target="_blank" rel="noopener">imposed</a> anti-dumping duties at rates ranging from 2.02% to 376.85% and countervailing duties at rates ranging from 1.44% to 168.81% on aluminum extrusions imported from 14 countries, including India.</p>


US Anode Material Producers Seek 920% Tariff on Graphite Imports from China


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					</table><p>U.S.-based battery materials producer <a href="https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Redwood Materials</a> received a conditional commitment for a $2 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy (<a href="https://www.energy.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOE</a>) to commence the production of anode foil, one of the most crucial components in a battery.</p>
<p>DOE released the commitment to Redwood as part of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.</p>
<p>Redwood will use the fund to produce 100 GWh of ultra-thin battery-grade copper foil and cathode-active materials annually, from both new and recycled feedstocks at gigafactory scale in the U.S. This will provide enough battery materials to produce over a million electric vehicles (EV) a year domestically.</p>
<p>The DOE financing to Redwood will help U.S. bolster domestic manufacturing without which battery cell manufacturers in America are estimated to offshore over $150 billion in economic value for anode and cathode components by the end of the decade.</p>
<p>Of the companies Redwood has partnered with, Panasonic will be the first to source the copper foil for cell production in the Nevada gigafactory and the company’s cathode material for battery cell production in its new Kansas plant, that is scheduled to go online in 2025.</p>
<p>Cathode and anode are the two most important components which amount to nearly 80% of the materials cost of a lithium-ion battery. However, Asia dominates in the production of these components.</p>
<p>The production of anode foil will pave the way for battery and automotive manufacturers to meet the new stringent critical mineral and battery component requirements for consumers to qualify for EV tax credits as established by the Inflation Reduction Act passed in August 2022.</p>
<p>Last May, DOE <a href="https://mercomindia.com/us-funding-boost-domestic-battery-manufacturing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> $3.16 billion in funding from President Biden’s ‘Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’ to expand domestic battery manufacturing and support domestic supply chains.</p>
<p>The DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory <a href="https://mercomindia.com/reusing-discarded-materials-circular-economy-energy-storage-sector/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outlined</a> measures to limit and reuse the materials used in diverse designs of lithium-ion batteries, to establish a circular economy-based sustainable strategy. A circular economy replaces the end-of-life concept with restoration, shifts towards the use of renewable energy, and aims to eliminate waste through the superior design of materials, products, systems, and business models.</p>


US Loans $2 Billion to Redwood Materials for Battery Anode Foil Production

<p>Researchers at the <a href="https://english.bjut.edu.cn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Beijing University of Technology</a> claim that they had synthesized a series of phosphorus(P)-/tin (Sn)-based composites that serve as high-capacity and high-stability anode materials, enabling a sodium-ion battery with a capacity retention of 97.7% after 50 cycles.</p>
<p>The researchers said sodium-ion batteries would be a vital alternative to lithium-ion batteries due to the high abundance and low cost of sodium resources. High-capacity anode materials like phosphorus are known for their high theoretical capacities, low discharge voltages, and low costs. But they often suffer from large volume expansion, leading to problems like structural collapse and particle pulverization, declining performance rapidly. Therefore, they alloyed phosphorous with tin and constructed well-designed microstructures to buffer these issues.</p>
<p>The researchers used a low-cost one-step ball milling procedure to synthesize a series of phosphorus-/tin-based composites. They embedded and separated an optimal structure comprising crystalline nanodomains like tin phosphide (Sn4P3) and Sn in an amorphous phosphorus matrix. The new architecture hindered the aggregation of metallic tin-based particles and helped improve the conductivity of amorphous phosphorus, enhancing the efficiency of electrochemical reactions. With its small crystalline domain and amorphous nature, phosphorus enabled the material with high stability.</p>
<p>Due to highly disordered composite anode materials, the researchers also faced challenges in gaining structure information of diverse microstructures. However, they introduced pair distribution function methodology, which helped provide local structure information for complicated systems and quantify the components in ordered or even disordered materials. This helped them analyze the structure and proportion of SnPx crystalline domains.</p>
<p>In August 2021, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories <a href="https://mercomindia.com/molten-sodium-batteries-improve-grid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">designed</a> a new class of molten sodium batteries for grid-scale energy storage. This new battery could operate at a much lower 230 degrees Fahrenheit than the commercially available molten sodium batteries, which typically operate at 520-660 degrees Fahrenheit.</p>
<p>Last year, researchers at the Washington State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory <a href="https://mercomindia.com/rresearchers-announce-cheapersodium-ion-battery/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that they had developed a sodium-ion battery that could be made using cheap and widely available materials. They said these batteries work as well as commercially available lithium-ion batteries, adding that they offer similar performance and could retain over 80% of their charge even after 1,000 charge cycles.</p>


Researchers Develop a Stable Anode Material for Sodium-Ion Batteries

<p><a href="https://epsiloncarbon.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Epsilon Carbon</a>, a coal chemical processing company, announced that it plans to invest $70 million (~₹5.2 billion) over the next five years towards establishing 50,000 tons of anode material manufacturing capacity in the country by 2025.</p>
<p>The Mumbai-based company said that it would diversify into the battery material business to develop and manufacture carbon products for the anode components of lithium-ion batteries.</p>
<p>Epsilon said that its battery materials wing would be set up under a new subsidiary &#8211; Epsilon Advanced Materials, which has already commissioned production in the country to produce 5,000 tons of anode material annually. The company plans to triple this capacity by 2021 and plans to achieve a production capacity of 50,000 tons per year by 2025. Epsilon Advanced Materials was set up to supply synthetic graphite material to cell manufacturers and energy storage device companies.</p>
<p>The company also stated that it had started trials with anode material producers and cell manufacturers globally to start the qualification phase.</p>
<p>Lithium-ion batteries are some of the most commonly used batteries in electronic devices and electric vehicles. The anode is the electrode of a battery that releases electrons during discharge. Lithium-ion batteries use anodes made out of graphite, a carbon-based material.</p>
<p>In March, United States-based XNRGI <a href="https://mercomindia.com/us-based-xnrgi-lithium-ion-factory-gurugram/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced</a> that the company opened a high-temperature lithium-ion battery factory in Gurugram in India that can produce 240 MWh of battery production capacity. The factory will be spread across 45,000 square feet of land. It said it also has aggressive plans to scale capacity worldwide in the multi GWh range by 2022 with strategic relationships in different parts of the world.</p>
<p>In December 2019, Ather Energy <a href="https://mercomindia.com/ather-energy-ev-li-ion-battery-tamil-nadu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced</a> that it signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Tamil Nadu to set up a two-wheeled electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility. The 400,000 square feet factory will be located at Hosur. The company added that it has plans to expand its products and services to 30 more cities over the next few years.</p>
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<p>Image credit: Unsplash</p>


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