The market competition for adding new projects to graphite cathodes is further intensifying

According to public information, Xinjiang Nongliushi Carbon Co., Ltd. plans to build a new cathode project with an annual output of 30000 tons to produce graphitized cathode carbon blocks. The construction site is planned to be located on the west side of the 550000 ton/year electrolytic aluminum project of Xinjiang Nongliushi Carbon Co., Ltd. in the Zhundong Industrial Park of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, as a supporting project for the 550000 ton electrolytic aluminum replacement capacity of the Nongliushi Aluminum Industry. The project is scheduled to commence construction in June 2024 and commence production in December 2024. The construction mainly includes the unloading station of calcined petroleum coke, cathode production workshop, roasting workshop, graphitization workshop, machining workshop and finished product warehouse, and return material processing workshop.

According to statistics, as of May 2024, the cathode production capacity in Xinjiang region was only 30000 tons, belonging to East Hope Group It was put into operation at the end of December 2022. The 20000 ton graphite cathode project of Xinjiang Chenfeng Carbon Co., Ltd. is still under construction.

Table 1 Production capacity statistics of graphitized cathodes in Xinjiang region

At present, the production capacity of electrolytic aluminum in Xinjiang region is 6.535 million tons, and the cathodes used by electrolytic aluminum enterprises in the region are mainly graphite and fully graphitized cathodes. In order to implement the national “dual carbon” strategy, adhere to the concept of green development, and promote the transformation of enterprises towards a green, low-carbon, and sustainable development model, aluminum electrolysis enterprises in Xinjiang region have also begun to accelerate the technological transformation process of graphite cathodes in electrolytic cells. Among them, the electrolytic cell transformation project of Xinjiang Nongliushi Carbon Co., Ltd. has completed the graphite cathode transformation for 150 400KA electrolytic cells in 2023.