Needle coke market demand will further grow, and the industry has large room for improvement

Needle coke is a carbon material produced by delayed coking of refined petroleum pitch or coal tar pitch (removing impurities and native quinoline insoluble matter). It has a silver-gray, metallic-glossy porous appearance. Solid, with low porosity, low thermal expansion coefficient, low metal content, high electrical conductivity and easy graphitization.

The upstream of the needle coke industry chain is the supply of production raw materials such as pitch, coal tar, catalytic oil slurry; the midstream is the production of subdivided products, mainly including oil-based needle coke and coal-based needle coke; the downstream is mainly used for In the fields of steel-making furnaces, graphite electrodes, anode materials, etc. Among them, the graphite electrode field accounts for more than 50% of the downstream demand for needle coke, and the anode material accounts for about 48%.

According to the “In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report on Needle Coke Industry 2023-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center, the target Coke is one of the necessary high-quality raw materials in the lithium battery anode material industry. As my country’s economic development level continues to improve and national disposable income continues to increase, new energy vehicles continue to develop under the support of national policies and market demand. Production and sales have shown explosive growth, driving the demand for lithium batteries and lithium battery anode materials. Increase. In 2022, my country’s new energy vehicle production will exceed 7 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of approximately 97%, and sales will be approximately 6.9 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of approximately 93%.

Graphite electrode is one of the important raw materials for electric furnace steelmaking. With the continuous advancement of the “dual carbon” policy, the transformation and upgrading of my country’s steel industry has gradually accelerated, and electric furnace steelmaking has developed rapidly. In January 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Steel Industry”, proposing that by 2025, the steel process structure will be significantly optimized, and electric furnace steel The target of increasing the proportion of output in total crude steel output to more than 15%. As one of the main raw materials for graphite electrodes, the market demand for needle coke will further grow. Driven by downstream market demand, my country’s needle coke production capacity continues to expand. In 2022, my country’s needle coke production capacity will be approximately 2.7 million tons, a year-on-year increase of approximately 17%.

After a period of development, my country’s needle coke industry has seen an increasing number of manufacturing companies and an expanding production scale. However, due to the late start of the industry and limitations of technology and experience, products are mainly concentrated in the mid- to low-end markets, and high-end products still need to rely on foreign countries. Import, the industry has great room for improvement.

Industry analysts said that from the perspective of enterprise distribution, domestic needle coke production enterprises are currently mainly concentrated in Hebei, Liaoning, Shandong, etc. In the Bohai Rim Economic Zone, industries are showing a trend of agglomeration and development. At this stage, the main domestic oil-based needle coke manufacturers include Shandong Yida New Materials Co., Ltd., Liaoning Baolai Bioenergy Co., Ltd., Shandong Dongyang Technology Co., Ltd., etc. The main coal-based needle coke manufacturers include Tangshan Dongri New Energy Materials Co., Ltd., Shanxi Hongte Coal Chemical Co., Ltd., Baowu Carbon Technology Co., Ltd., etc.