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Special to the News
Westwater Resources Inc., an energy technology and battery-grade natural graphite company, announced yesterday that it is experiencing increased demand for its natural graphite anode material that will be produced from its Kellyton Graphite Plant after the implementation of global tariffs.
Worldwide, the vast majority of natural graphite anode material is currently imported from Chinese producers. While subject to continuing uncertainty, currently the import tariff on natural graphite anode material from China is 170%.
Although some types of natural graphite used in other industries is exempt from some of the recent tariff increases, natural graphite anode material for applications in electric vehicle batteries – commonly referred to as coasted spherical processed graphite, or CSPG – is not exempt and is subject to the full tariffs.
In addition, tariffs are also now in place on CSPG shipped from other countries including Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. These broad tariffs effectively plug loopholes in the Inflation Reduction Act that the federal government has been trying to address via a series of interpretations and executive orders over the past couple of years.
Jon Jacobs, Westwater’s chief commercial officer, said, “The recent import tariffs on CSPG are a game changer for Westwater. Although individual country tariff amounts may continue to fluctuate going forward, import tariffs on battery natural graphite produced anywhere outside the U.S. are likely to persist. Therefore, one of the best hedges for U.S. auto companies and their battery partners to avoid such tariffs completely is to buy their CSPG from U.S. producers like Westwater. In that regard, we are experiencing a notable increase in customer interest in new off-take contracts for the CSPG product to be produced from our Kellyton Graphite Plant.”
Westwater Resources is an energy technology company that is focused on developing battery-grade natural graphite. Westwater’s primary project is the Kellyton Graphite Processing Plant that is under construction in east-central Alabama. In addition, Westwater Resources’ Coosa Graphite Deposit is the largest and most advanced natural flake graphite deposit in the contiguous United States and is located across 41,965 acres in Coosa County.
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