Battery-Material Producer Shares Rise as U.S. Set to Tariff Chinese Graphite
The U.S. Commerce Department will impose preliminary anti-dumping duties of 93.5% on Chinese graphite imports, after determining the materials were unfairly subsidized, according to a statement posted online late Thursday by the American Active Anode Material Producers.
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Bloomberg
5 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Myanmar Remains Upbeat on Trade Talks Despite 40% Trump Tariffs
Myanmar 's military government said it remains upbeat on reaching a deal with the US to see a decrease in Trump's new tariffs of 40% on goods from the Southeast Asian country. 'The US continues to negotiate with us on this so it's still in a stage of negotiation,' Zaw Min Tun, chief spokesman of the ruling State Security and Peace Commission, told Bloomberg News on Saturday.


CNN
9 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump fires a senior official over jobs numbers
Donald Trump Job market EconomyFacebookTweetLink Follow President Donald Trump has fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whom he accused, without evidence, of manipulating the monthly jobs reports for 'political purposes.' The BLS' monthly labor report Friday showed that the US economy added only 73,000 jobs in July, far below expectations. It also sharply revised down the employment growth that had been previously reported in May and June – by a combined 258,000 jobs. After the revisions, the jobs report showed the weakest pace of hiring for any three-month period since the pandemic recession in 2020. 'In my opinion, today's Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad,' Trump said in a Truth Social post. Although the May and June jobs numbers were worse than initially believed, revisions are normal in this process. The BLS' initial monthly jobs estimates are often based on incomplete data, so they are revised twice after the initial report — followed by an annual revision every February. Additionally, BLS economists use a formula to smooth out jobs numbers for seasonal variations and that can exacerbate revisions when they fall outside economists' expectations. Trump on Friday incorrectly called the revisions a 'mistake.' 'McEntarfer said there were only 73,000 Jobs added (a shock!) but, more importantly, that a major mistake was made by them, 258,000 Jobs downward, in the prior two months,' Trump said on Truth Social. 'Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative. The Economy is BOOMING under 'TRUMP.'' Trump said McEntarfer 'faked' the jobs numbers before the election to try to boost former Vice President Kamala Harris' chances in the 2024 presidential election. 'We're doing so well. I believe the numbers were phony, just like they were before the election, and there were other times. So, you know what I did? I fired her, and you know what? I did the right thing,' Trump told reporters Friday on the South Lawn. McEntarfer was confirmed by the Senate 86-8 in January 2024 for a term of four years. CNN has reached out to McEntarfer for comment. Until Trump replaces McEntarfer, Deputy Commissioner William Wiatrowski will serve as Acting Commissioner, the administration said. Trump has previously criticized the BLS for its jobs data and revisions, and he told reporters Friday evening he's 'always had a problem with these numbers.' In 2016, during his first presidential campaign, Trump claimed that the unemployment rate was significantly higher than the BLS let on. In 2024, he accused former President Joe Biden's administration of orchestrating a cover-up, after the BLS reported that it had overcounted jobs by 818,000 over the previous 12 months. 'I was thinking about it this morning, before the numbers that came out. I said, 'Who is the person that does these numbers?' And then they gave me stats about before the election,' Trump said Friday. 'We need people that we can trust,' he added. But Trump and his administration have also praised the BLS data when it has been favorable to them. During Trump's first term, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in March 2017 that the jobs data was no longer 'phony' after the BLS issued a strong jobs report. And a month ago, current White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on social media that the economy had beat expectations for jobs in four straight BLS labor reports. The BLS is nonpartisan, and businesses and government officials rely on the accuracy of its data to make determinations about investment, hiring, spending and all sorts of key decisions. 'It's outrageous for anyone in government to question the integrity of the BLS,' said Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and former Obama economic adviser. 'Accurate statistics are essential to the economy.' Furman doubted that replacing McEntarfer would compromise the BLS, but he said even the possibility or appearance of that notion 'would be bad.' 'Countries that have tried to fake those statistics have often ended up with economic crises as a result,' Furman said. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said the BLS' data is at the 'highest standard,' and 'as accurate as it can be.' 'Anything that undermines that or even the perception of that high standard is deeply worrisome,' Zandi said. 'I've never seen anything even close to this.' At Moody's, Zandi said he has hired a number of former BLS economists whom he called 'fantastic.' 'They do great work,' Zandi said. 'They are critical to a well-functioning economy.' Democratic Virginia Senator Mark Warner accused Trump of working the referees. 'Firing the ump doesn't change the score,' Warner said in a statement. 'Americans deserve to know the truth about the state of the Trump economy.' But Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a post on social media that she supports replacing McEntarfer. 'A recent string of major revisions have come to light and raised concerns about decisions being made by the Biden-appointed Labor Commissioner,' Chavez-DeRemer said on X. 'I support the President's decision to replace Biden's Commissioner and ensure the American People can trust the important and influential data coming from BLS.' The BLS jobs survey is widely considered by economists to be robust. It samples more than 100,000 businesses and government agencies each month, representing roughly 629,000 individual worksites. But, as part of larger cost-cutting taking place around practically every part of Trump's government, the BLS is laying off staff — and, as a result, reducing the scope of its work. For example, the BLS posted a notice in June stating it stopped collecting data for its Consumer Price Index in three cities (Lincoln, Nebraska; Buffalo, New York; and Provo, Utah) and increased 'imputations' for certain items (a statistical technique that, when boiled down to very rough terms, essentially means more educated guesses). That worried Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. In testimony before Congress in June, Powell said he believed the BLS data to be accurate, but he was upset about what could become a trend. 'I wouldn't say that I'm concerned about the data today, although there has been a very mild degradation of the scope of the surveys,' Powell said at the time, in response to a question about survey data quality. 'But I would say the direction of travel is something I'm concerned about.' 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Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
New Tariffs Threaten American Battery Production
Trump-era clean energy policies are slamming the breaks on the United States' battery war with China. While lithium-ion batteries were invented in the United States, China has been outpacing the nation in terms of both battery manufacturing and technological innovations. But while U.S. companies have been scrambling to keep up, gutted clean energy incentives and tariffs on critical materials have made a U.S. victory all but impossible. The domestic battery industry had been gaining considerable ground under the Biden administration thanks to major incentives including the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act. Tax credits, in particular, 'helped close the price gap between U.S.-made batteries and those made in China, the world's main supplier of lithium-ion battery modules, cells, and materials,' according to Canary Media. Realizing that the Trump administration would bring a less encouraging policy environment for clean energy technologies, makers of lithium-ion batteries promised the federal government that they would collectively spend a cumulative $100 billion by 2030 to build up an independent and totally domestic grid battery industry. In exchange, they asked for continued political support. So far, that plea seems to be falling flat. Just this month, the Trump administration accused Chinese suppliers of dumping graphite into U.S. markets – meaning that they are selling graphite more cheaply abroad than in their own markets. As a result, the United States has imposed a formidable 93.5 percent tariff on Chinese graphite. This could have immediate and serious consequences for United States batterymakers, as almost all refined graphite in the world comes from China. In fact, this tariff alone could 'easily add $1,000 or more to the price of a battery' according to the New York Times. As a result, the nation's once-thriving 'battery belt' is faltering. 'Projects are being paused, cancelled, and closed at a rate 6 times more than during the same period in 2024,' reports 'The Big Green Machine,' a site affiliated with Wellesley College that tracks domestic clean energy investments. And this biggest projects are the ones suffering most. Politico reports that 'prospects dimmed for 34 projects that are worth more than $31 billion and were expected to create almost 28,000 jobs.' This includes projects that are either paused, canceled, delayed by at least six faced by a slash in funding, or scaled down. But the overall impact of recent political shifts are still unclear, and overall the domestic clean energy sector is still growing. Related: 'The policies Republicans have passed are so recent that they may not have worked their way through the economy,' reports Politico. 'In the last three months, Congress has passed and President Donald Trump has signed bills that removed key tax credits, taken the teeth out of fuel-economy rules and neutered California's ability to force automakers to sell EVs.' Taken together, all of these compounding policy measures create an uncertain policy and investment environment at minimum. More likely, it will cause an extreme contraction of the domestic battery sector at a time when Beijing was already pulling away. "Unquestionably, the Chinese are ahead in manufacturing technology," Bob Galyen, a retired executive who worked with both GM and the Chinese battery giant CATL, told NPR. He says that Chinese battery research and development is receiving major influxes of cash at a time when U.S. manufacturers are struggling for funding. "Clearly, the U.S. is lagging behind,' he finished. Ironically, these measures are hitting Republican districts the hardest. The so-called 'battery belt' is mostly comprised of red states. As a result, according to Politico, 'GOP districts saw 60 percent of the funding decline, while Democratic districts saw 39 percent.' By Haley Zaremba for More Top Reads From this article on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data