"China's Graphite Market Share at 91%" Korea Development Bank's Critical Minerals Supply Chain Report

Overall High Dependence on China

Industrial Bank of Korea announced on the 20th that it has published a Global Value Chain (GVC) report on national critical minerals. National critical minerals refer to minerals that require management from the perspective of economic security due to their significant ripple effects on domestic industry and the economy during crises.

Earlier in February, the government designated 33 types of national critical minerals, including lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, graphite, rare earth elements (5 types), niobium, copper, aluminum, silicon, magnesium, molybdenum, vanadium, platinum group metals (2 types), tin, titanium, tungsten, antimony, bismuth, chromium, lead, zinc, gallium, indium, tantalum, zirconium, strontium, and selenium. This report includes research on four major secondary battery materials (lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite) and rare earth elements and tungsten among the national critical minerals.

The global supply chain is an international production network formed across multiple countries and regions, and its restructuring has accelerated recently due to US-China conflicts and resource weaponization movements. In particular, critical minerals are concentrated in specific countries for mining and production, making stable procurement increasingly important.

To analyze the supply chain, the Industrial Bank of Korea created a Global Trade Flow Map (GVC Map) based on data from the Korea International Trade Association’s import-export statistics, the United Nations Comtrade database (UN Comtrade), and the United States Geological Survey statistics (USGS). Based on this analysis, it was found that dependence on China is very high across all critical minerals.

KDB Industrial Bank stock photo / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

Regarding graphite, which has recently become an issue due to export controls, China’s production volume of flake graphite (an intermediate raw material processed from graphite ore into a form suitable for high-quality anode manufacturing) was 820,000 tons, accounting for 91% of the global market share. Notably, it was observed that mined minerals are concentrated in China during intermediate stages such as refining and smelting.

In the case of rare earth elements, which are subject to resource weaponization movements, China is strengthening its dominance across all stages including mining, production, and products (such as permanent magnets). In response, countries possessing rare earth mines like the United States and Australia are promoting de-Chinaization by establishing domestic production facilities.

Through this report, the Industrial Bank of Korea emphasized that “South Korea also needs to make multifaceted efforts to secure critical minerals, including diversifying supply chains through overseas resource development, strengthening domestic supply chains, and recycling resources.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.