*It’s baffling* - a 920% tariff on Chinese graphite is the demand from US’ domestic players to make the sector viable! That is how competitive and ahead the Chinese graphite manufacturers are. Truly insane! .. *See, graphite constitutes about 10% of battery cell costs.* A tariff increase to 920% would essentially double battery costs, challenging the competitiveness of US-made EVs, especially since producing batteries in the US is already 20-30% more expensive than in China. The industry says that without the tariff, US synthetic graphite production investments might not yield the desired independence from Chinese supplies, which control over 90% of the high-grade graphite market. .. *Anyhow, I believe Trump won’t pay heed to the demand.* I mean, such a tariff push would directly threaten Elon Musk’s Tesla which is deeply entwined with graphite sourcing from China. And given how close Elon is to Trump now, I doubt latter would make moves that hurt the former. .. *Nonetheless, what matters here is the lesson on how sophisticated Chinese industry must be!* If US-based entities can’t justify investments in graphite without a 920% tariff on Chinese supplies, then they are basically no more suitable for graphite production. They are ages behind. And this is something for us all to ponder over. What do you think? .. *Support my work:* https://t.ly/SUPPORTjay *Check my work with:* - 3.2k+ on Decoding The Dragon (https://t.ly/chnwj) - 2.8k+ on Deepdives with Jay (https://t.ly/dwj) - 2.3k+ on BharatNama (https://t.ly/bwj) Best, Jayant Shilanjan Mundhra