Jixi City, an industrial city located in the southeastern part of Heilongjiang Province, rose to prominence thanks to coal and has since become renowned for its graphite. Graphite is truly “black gold” of the industrial world. Jixi boasts abundant graphite reserves and is known as the “Graphite Capital of China.” In Jixi, the graphite industry is booming at an unprecedented pace—a development that would not have been possible without the quiet yet indispensable contributions of a key player: the Jixi City Graphite Product Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Testing Center (hereinafter referred to as the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center). As a national-level graphite quality inspection agency, the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center not only shoulders the critical responsibility of safeguarding and supporting the graphite industry but also plays an essential role in strengthening and solidifying the graphite industry chain and empowering the industry’s high-quality development.

Recently, a reporter visited the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center to gain an in-depth understanding of the center’s efforts and achievements in promoting the development of the graphite industry.

“Jixi City is rich in graphite resources, with reserves reaching 976 million tons. More than 50% of these reserves consist of large-flake crystalline graphite, which boasts excellent quality and vast development potential,” said Li Fusheng, Vice Mayor of Jixi City, visibly proud during an interview with a reporter.

In recent years, Jixi City has fully implemented the Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee’s requirements to “vigorously develop strategic emerging industries such as new materials,” and has deeply carried out the Graphite Industry Doubling Plan, making every effort to build a graphite production and processing base worth tens of billions of yuan. Currently, the city has 66 graphite-producing enterprises, including 33 large-scale enterprises. The city’s annual capacity for processing graphite ore has reached 7.5 million tons, with a refined concentrate powder production capacity of 620,000 tons.

“We adhere to using project development as the driving force, strengthening R&D of new products, continuously expanding production scale, and striving to extend and deepen the graphite industry chain,” Li Fusheng said. The city has preliminarily established nine industrial chains covering green and intelligent mining and beneficiation, refractory materials, energy-storage materials, expanded graphite materials, ultra-hard materials, special graphite materials, graphene materials, comprehensive utilization of tailings, and graphite machinery and equipment. Twenty-five types of deeply processed products—including high-purity graphite, graphite paper, negative electrode materials, high-quality diamonds, graphite electrodes, and graphene—have been industrialized, with a total production capacity reaching 615,000 tons.

Speaking about the current development status of the graphite industry, Li Fusheng said that Jixi City’s graphite industry is showing a robust and promising growth trend. In 2024, the city saw 15 ongoing and newly launched graphite industry projects with a total investment of 4.49 billion yuan. Among these, the energy storage workshop equipment for the Jiaze Energy Storage Battery Manufacturing Project has been successfully commissioned and is now undergoing trial production; meanwhile, the Kairui Carbon-Based New Materials Project has begun trial operations of a 10,000-ton-per-year expandable graphite production line.

Strengthen the foundation and build a new high ground for graphite inspection and testing. 　

Stepping into the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center, one is immediately struck by its spacious, bright laboratories and state-of-the-art testing equipment. “The graphite industry is one of Jixi City’s pillar industries,” said Liu Daling, Director of the Jixi City Market Supervision Administration, to reporters. “As the market regulatory authority, we have both the responsibility and the obligation to provide strong support and ensure the healthy development of the graphite industry.” The Graphite Inspection and Testing Center undertakes inspection and testing duties for graphite products and related items nationwide. In recent years, the center has thoroughly implemented the strategic plan laid out by the Jixi Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government to build Jixi into “China’s Graphite Capital.” Guided by the principle of “focusing on three key areas and promoting three major initiatives,” and driven by deepened reform and innovation, the center has comprehensively enhanced its capabilities in precise inspection and testing.

“The Graphite Inspection and Testing Center is equipped with 100 high-end testing instruments, including an Agilent gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer from the U.S., a Metrohm ion chromatograph from Switzerland, and a Hitachi cold-field emission scanning electron microscope from Japan—totaling 100 units. The laboratory covers an area of 2,780 square meters and boasts a highly qualified team of technical professionals, including one doctoral degree holder, four master’s degree holders, one senior engineer at the researcher level, and five senior engineers,” Liu Daling introduced the center’s hardware facilities and talent pool with great enthusiasm.

Speaking about the key priorities of the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center, Liu Dalin stated that the center’s work primarily focuses on three areas: drafting and revising national and industry standards to enhance supervision and assurance capabilities; collaborating with leading domestic institutions to improve inspection and testing capacities; and standardizing the system construction to strengthen internal management capabilities.

“We spent three years conducting in-depth research on flake graphite producers across the country and successfully revised three national standards, including the ‘Flake Graphite’ standard. In addition, we have also developed a number of industry standards, Heilongjiang provincial standards, and group standards,” said Liu Dalin proudly. “The formulation and implementation of these standards have effectively eliminated the fraudulent practice of adding artificially reconstituted graphite to natural flake graphite, thereby strongly safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of users and enhancing the brand reputation of Jixi flake graphite.”

According to reports, the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center has also been actively collaborating with institutions such as the Capability Verification Center of the Changsha Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and China Real Gold Laboratory Capability Verification Co., Ltd., carrying out a series of activities including capability verification and measurement audits, thereby significantly enhancing its inspection and testing capabilities. Currently, its inspection and testing capacity covers 29 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across China, enabling it to test 118 varieties of graphite products for 1,085 parameters. The coverage rate of domestic graphite product testing has reached 100%.

Optimize Services to Support High-Quality Development of the Graphite Industry 　

The Graphite Inspection and Testing Center deeply understands that high-quality service is the key to winning both the market and customers. Therefore, the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center consistently prioritizes optimizing its services, providing graphite enterprises with free training for inspection personnel, specialized technical services, and inspection and testing services, thereby fully supporting the development of the graphite industry.

In terms of inspector training services, the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center provides annual technical training for inspection and testing personnel from graphite enterprises in Jixi City, having trained over 500 enterprise inspectors and chief quality officers specializing in graphite. Chi Jing, an employee of Betray New Materials Co., Ltd., is one of the outstanding participants. She said: “By attending the training offered by the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center, I’ve not only enhanced my professional skills but also received honors such as the May Day Labor Medal of Heilongjiang Province and the Jixi City Model Worker Award. This has been a tremendous source of encouragement and recognition for me.”

In terms of specialized technical services, the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center has been deeply engaged in providing “one-stop” quality infrastructure services for graphite. To date, the center has conducted on-site service activities at more than 40 graphite enterprises across the city. “Addressing challenges faced by enterprises—such as inability to operate testing equipment, improper use of standards, lack of channels for consulting technical issues, and disputes over testing techniques—the center’s technicians have provided on-site guidance, answered questions, and offered technical support, helping enterprises resolve over a hundred technical problems and saving them millions of yuan in economic losses,” said Liu Zhiguang, Director of the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center, to reporters.

“The services provided by the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center are truly timely and thoughtful. They not only helped us solve technical challenges but also offered us many valuable suggestions. With their support, we’re full of confidence in our future development,” said Wang Pengcheng, Deputy Director of the Quality Department at China National Building Materials Group Heilongjiang Graphite New Materials Co., Ltd.

In terms of inspection and testing services, the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center has fully leveraged its strengths in inspection and testing, proactively establishing green channels for enterprises both within and outside the region, streamlining administrative procedures, and offering free inspection services for graphite samples. In recent years, the Graphite Inspection and Testing Center has provided free inspections for over 2,600 batches of products on behalf of 20 graphite enterprises, including Jixi City Aoyu Graphite Co., Ltd. and China National Building Materials Heilongjiang Graphite New Materials Co., Ltd., helping these companies recover losses and increase their revenues by nearly ten million yuan.

Regarding the future development of Jixi City’s graphite industry, Li Fusheng has a clear plan: “We will focus on building the nation’s largest base for the deep processing of natural graphite, vigorously implement a graphite industry doubling plan, and work together to promote the development of the graphite industry. We will truly transform Jixi into the core support for Heilongjiang’s graphite industry and a leading hub for the development of the national graphite sector.”

He emphasized the need to adhere to specialized development and differentiated growth, focusing on key areas based on resource characteristics and the current industrial landscape, and promoting the extension, supplementation, and strengthening of industrial chains.

As they prepared to leave, the reporters looked back at this vibrant and dynamic city, their hearts filled with confidence and anticipation for the development of Jixi’s graphite industry. By strengthening the industrial chain through quality enhancement, the graphite industry in Jixi has blossomed with new brilliance; driven by innovation, this old industrial city has regained its vitality. It is foreseeable that Jixi’s graphite industry will surely usher in even broader prospects for growth and a brighter future. This comprehensive industrial city, with a century-long history of coal mining, will undoubtedly, thanks to its abundant graphite resources and robust development momentum, become a key pillar of the national and global graphite industry.