Co-authored by Chris Berry and Jonathan Lee

For a PDF version of this note, please click here. 

It’s been awhile since I’ve commented on the graphite capital markets. Financing difficulties, slack demand, economic uncertainty, and investor apathy (issues facing much of the commodity complex) are also at play in the graphite space. Nevertheless, graphite will remain an important piece of current and next generation supply chains and so a sober look at the sector is warranted.

In order to take a “deeper” analytical dive, I’ve asked Jonathan Lee, an institutional mining analyst and President of JGL Partners, to assist with this piece. Investors have shied away from the niche products like graphite due to opaque pricing and the transactional nature of the business. With no futures market, price discovery is tantamount to guess work unless you are in the business. This is generally true across the value chain from juniors to integrated producers.