European Union Graphite Production and Availability (2004-2014)

The British Geological Survey’s “World Materials Statistics Database” was used to produce the graph and table shown below. (Click here) to go to the website where this data is available.)

table	production (mined) metric tons	imports metric tons	exports metric tons	available metric tons
2004	8,550	149,924	63,693	94,781
2005	6,124	159,227	44,563	120,788
2006	5,000	135,241	45,481	94,760
2007	3,000	170,026	99,472	73,554
2008	3,250	227,526	52,251	178,525
2009	28,102	94,321	37,826	84,597
2010	7,053	173,097	47,551	132,599
2011	925	162,640	52,950	110,615
2012	328	115,861	43,618	72,571
2013	769	115,421	36,035	80,155
2014	1,017	136,970	39,805	98,182
average	5,829	149,114	51,204	103,739

The data shown is for natural graphite – synthetic graphite data is not included.   The graphite available data represents the total graphite that was produced (mined) in all countries of the European Union plus the graphite imported into those countries less graphite exported from the countries.

The data   shows how depended the European Union is on imported graphite.  On average, over the years 2004 to 2014, the European Union only provided internally (mined) about 6% of the graphite it had available (presumably needed) for use (5,829 metric tons/103,739 metric tons).

Graphite has long been a critical material for many industries such as the steel industry.  In recent years, new and increasing needs of graphite have developed in such areas as smartphones, fuel cells, and batteries.  This increased need has prompted increased interest in more mining of graphite, especially because of concerns over China’s reduction of graphite exports.