Evion Group (ASX: EVG) has secured a maiden sales contract with German company Technografit GmbH worth at least $2 million for product from its newly built expandable graphite operation in India.

Located near the city of Pune, the operation is owned by the Panthera Graphite Technologies joint venture (JV) between Evion and Metachem Manufacturing.

The deal for 386 tonnes was signed following Technografit’s recent site visit and covers all production from the first ten weeks of operation.

Rising global demand

Under the terms of the deal, the the offtake is required to be paid by 15 March 2025 with a minimum of 50t to be shipped each month at an average price of US$3,000/t

Additional sales of more than 2,000t have been budgeted for the first full year of operations, equating to gross revenues of up to US$7m.

The JV is expected to host another delegation of buyers before year-end, in line with rising global demand for expandable graphite from the electric vehicle, aerospace, energy storage and electronics industries.

Advanced facility

Evion managing director David Round said he was pleased to have reached the stage of producing and selling world-class expandable graphite to the European market.

“Our facility is technologically advanced and clean energy-driven and is expected to produce globally significant quantities of expandable graphite to meet burgeoning demand from sources outside of China,” he said.

“We have undertaken extensive research and testing with buyers and believe we can grow our business to be one of the largest producers of graphite downstream products in the world.”

He said the JV was currently assessing several offers and options to sell additional material to global markets.

Expandable graphite market

The global expandable graphite market is projected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 7%, reaching US$707m by 2030.

This growth will be fuelled by the material’s extensive application across a variety of end-use industries such as automotive, aerospace and electronics due to its thermal conductivity, chemical inertness and lightweight properties.

Expandable graphite is also increasingly used in batteries and supercapacitors to address the need for efficient energy storage solutions.

Continuous advancements in manufacturing processes have led to the development of cost-effective and high-quality expandable graphite products, further driving market expansion.