Extruded Graphite Market to Witness Robust Growth in Asia Pacific due to Increasing Industrialization

 

Extruded graphite is used in various applications, such as bearing, heat exchangers, tiles, bricks, and vessel linings among others. For instance, in the manufacturing of various hot zone parts, used in the furnaces such as fasteners, plates, shelves, rails, and heating elements. Extruded graphite is widely used in the chemicals industry due to its high temperature stability and chemical resistant properties. Therefore, the wide applicability of extruded graphite is a major factor driving the extruded graphite market growth.

Moreover, the manufacturing cost of extruded graphite is approximately half of the cost of isostatic graphite. Thus, the economical production is another factor, supporting the extruded graphite market growth. Moreover, the production of isostatic graphite involves additional steps to mix the raw materials, which takes more time to manufacture than extruded graphite. Extruded graphite is produced in an extrusion process and grain size is about 10 larger than isostatic graphite. Extruded graphite has higher thermal and electrical conductivity compared to isostatic graphite. However, extruded graphite has a lower strength and a coarser grain size.

The extruded graphite market is gaining huge traction in the Asia Pacific due to increasing industrialization in the emerging economies such as India and China. In India, the progress of industrialization has been a striking feature of the economic development of the country. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), India is expected to displace Japan as the third largest auto market by 2021. Moreover, India is expected to become the third largest construction market by 2022. This in turn, is expected to augment the extruded graphite market growth in the Asia Pacific.

Furthermore, the extruded graphite market is witnessing significant growth due to increasing production of graphite due to increasing demand for extruded graphite from various end-use industries. Thus, market players are adopting various inorganic strategies to meet the increasing demand. For instance, in January 2018, SGL Group invested US$ 27.74 Million to expand its specialty graphite production at the Bonn site to meet an increasing demand.  Moreover, in July 2018, SGL expanded its graphite production capacities for the production of synthetic graphite anode material for lithium-ion batteries.

In December 2019, Mersen S.A planned to invest US$ 65 million to expand its graphite production facility in Tennessee. Such growing demand in various countries is in turn boosting the demand for extruded graphite. All the aforementioned factors are expected to drive growth of the extruded graphite market.