Fujian province puts focus on graphite and graphene
By Albert Li
Published: Friday, 07 July 2017
Fujian province in the south of China has announced that the city of Sanming will be the centre for development of its graphene industry.
Fujian is one of many Chinese provinces with or without
graphite resources that are setting up graphene operations.
Sanming, the neighbouring city of Yong’an and
Datian County have combined proven graphite reserves of 1.4m
tonnes and prospective reserves of 100m tonnes. Most of this is
high-grade amorphous graphite.
The municipal government of Sanming is planning to build a
graphite and graphene industrial development zone in Sanming, a
graphite and graphene industrial park in Yong’an
and a graphite and graphene industrial park in Datian. A
graphene engineering research centre established by the
Yong’an government and producer Xiangfenghua has
begun operations.
Yong’an has established a graphene investment
fund of Chinese renminbi (RMB) 500m ($73m*). This year and for
each of the next five years the government will allocate RMB5m
from a local fund and another RMB5m from a provincial fund to
support the graphite and graphene industry.
At present there are six graphite and graphene companies in
Sanming. Xiangfenghua has a finished anode material production
line, with a second production line under development that will
bring total capacity to 30,000 tpa. Dingfeng Carbon Company has
an isostatic pressing graphite operation with a capacity of
20,000 tpa.
Fujian’s local amorphous graphite business is
relatively small compared with Chenzhou in Hunan province, the
biggest amorphous graphite source in the world, which accounts
for more than 70% of China’s amorphous graphite
resources. This is the reason Fujian is taking the opportunity
to develop a value-added graphene industry.
This article was first published online
on 20 June.