Australian graphite producer Evion's joint venture with Indian producer Metachem Manufacturing in Pune, India has scheduled first shipments of its expandable graphite this month, Evion announced today.
The joint venture's first expandable graphite order of 386t from German trading firm Technografit was scheduled to be produced and exported in January-March. Around 120t was produced or "partially treated" from early November until mid-December before production was interrupted by scheduled maintenance in late December. The order is on track to be completed and will be shipped to Europe over the "forthcoming months", said Evion.
The sale achieved an average pricing of $3,000-3,300/t on a fob basis, according to Evion, while the joint venture's expected production costs total $1,500-1,750/t.
The joint venture has also secured 500t of graphite concentrate that is on site and ready for processing, and will be exported over April-September, mostly to Europe, said Evion.
"A further production guidance will be provided within the first quarter with additional details of new sales and buyers," said Evion, which expects its sales prices to be approximately 10pc higher in April-September.
Evion expects the joint venture to sell more than 2,000t of expandable graphite over its "first full year of operations". The joint venture started producing in April 2024.
The joint venture is also looking to expand the plant's capacity to 4,000 t/yr. The agreement between the two firms that set up the joint venture originally envisioned 2,000-2,500 t/yr of production capacity in the first three years.
