2025 marks the final year of China's 14th Five-Year Plan and a pivotal year for advancing comprehensive deepening reforms. To this end, China has intensified macroeconomic policy implementation, adopting a more proactive fiscal stance and moderately accommodative monetary policy. The "Two New Initiatives" (policies to boost new consumption and investment drivers) continue to gain momentum, synergistically stimulating consumption and investment while driving rapid growth in the clean energy sector and structural optimization in the steel industry despite persistent challenges.

Underpinned by downstream market demand, leading domestic needle coke producers accelerated capacity expansions, with H1 2025 output surging 73.69% YoY to 674,100 metric tons, solidifying their role as a critical enabler for China's clean energy and electric arc furnace (EAF) sectors.

In the lithium-ion battery (LIB) sector, driven by sustained growth in EV and energy storage applications, global LIB production reached 986.47 GWh in H1 2025 (+48.29% YoY), while global anode material output hit 1.3025 million metric tons (+34.7% YoY), with China accounting for 98.3% of this total. Despite market headwinds like overcapacity and weakening end-user demand, anode materials remain the most profitable among the four major LIB components. Leading firms continue expanding shipments by leveraging scale, technological leadership, and customer relationships, significantly boosting needle coke consumption.

For steel, H1 2025 saw policy synergies stabilize economic growth, with industrial production—closely tied to steel demand—maintaining upward momentum. Infrastructure and manufacturing investment growth offset declines in real estate investment, supporting resilient fixed asset investment. While domestic steel output dipped slightly, strong external demand fueled significant profit growth for large and medium-sized mills. Although EAF steel output growth stalled, ongoing product upgrades increased refining furnace adoption, underpinning steady demand for graphite electrodes and needle coke.

The current needle coke market is grappling with dual pressures from rapid capacity expansion and cyclical fluctuations in downstream demand, resulting in mounting inventories and shrinking profit margins. Coke producers are urgently seeking breakthrough strategies to navigate this challenging landscape. While the steel sector remains relatively stable, the LIB industry's rapid technological evolution has emerged as a pivotal catalyst for upstream raw material suppliers to explore new growth avenues. In the H1 of 2025, China's silicon-based anode and hard carbon anode markets witnessed significant expansion, driving accelerated development across related carbon material sectors, including porous carbon, carbon nanotubes, coating pitch, and conductive carbon black for LIB applications. Against the backdrop of policies aimed at curbing cutthroat competition, expanding application scenarios, advancing industrialization, and securing leadership in emerging industries have taken on heightened strategic importance.

To address these dynamics and foster sustainable growth, ICCSINO, in partnership with the China Carbon Industry Association, will host the International Needle Coke & Carbon Industry Conference (INCC) 2026 in November 2025. The 16th edition of this summit aims to convene stakeholders from government, industry, academia, research institutions, end-users, and capital markets to facilitate cross- sector collaboration. Through in-depth discussions on R&D breakthroughs, material innovation, technological demands, equipment advancements, engineering applications, manufacturing processes, and ecosystem development, the conference will empower needle coke enterprises to align closely with market trends and downstream technological shifts. Key objectives include accelerating product optimization, exploring new application fields, resolving industry pain points, and fostering an interconnected, win-win ecosystem. By bridging gaps across the value chain, the INCC seeks to drive innovation and cooperative development, positioning China’s needle coke and carbon materials sector as a global leader during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030)