For each new start, I perform an ongoing detailed company assessment on operational planning, strategic planning and realistic production goals and parameters, market application & technical knowledge, and growth / marketing / branding analysis.
Also, if ANY of the management team has extensive background in graphite powders (broad based applications and not just the mainstream discussion apps) for each of the new starts around the globe along with probability of securing funds either through equity raises or debt.
Experience in graphite dictates a wide diversification of product applications and product offerings creating various revenue price points with increasing marginal profits & cash flows to be successful and not hanging a production hat on the highest post, most difficult application post. Singular application revenue streams are extremely risky and in today's lending climate, risk averse is the main focus of private lenders.
Debt is the absolute long shot as lenders today are not as educated on graphite as an industrial / technical mineral as they are with say gold, silver, lithium, or cobalt and almost all potential lenders apply bulk industrial mineral metrics and jargon to graphite including the term "off-take" which is not applicable to natural graphite.
ALL graphite has to be qualified before any sales agreement or supply contract can be executed. Lab or pilot plants samples are ONLY indicators and main commercial production sampling and bulk trials are the target of customer qualifications.
To date, big banks have not demonstrated any move toward financing any greenfield operations, yet there are private lenders that are interested, yet the terms are extremely difficult to meet (prior sales history, take or pay supply agreements, etc.).
Also, I complete a comprehensive assessment in the level of understanding the graphite market as a whole and not just the hype sectors is an important differentiator of a startup as well as understanding target and potential target applications, qualification timelines, and likelihood of their graphite product's success is imperative. Assuming that a graphite signature works in every application or specifically in any battery chemistry is impractical.
There are many good stories in the new start up realm including BKT, but the graphite industry is not as simple as many have tried to make it or approach it including new starts trying to get their heads around accurate graphite product prices...with exception of pricing intel coming out of China (high volume graphite prices), pricing remains an enigma.
The only public pricing information available comes from Roskill, BM, or IM or smaller market researchers; all of whom talk MAINLY to suppliers and not directly to customer procurement. Customers are not willing to provide proprietary pricing or product intelligence that will be published in the public domain. This is a business strategy.
The main fear that all start ups, as well as established producers, should have is the flooding of the market with new graphite supplies, not in equilibrium or in response to substantial increases in demand, that will affect traditional application pricing significantly over the next 12 to 18 months. It will turn heavily into a buyers market.
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