This content is reproduced with the kind permission of the original author Mike Brenner and was originally published at Stockopedia
Competitors
There will be many companies that win over time as advanced 2D materials are commercialised, as there are 1000’s of combinations of uses in 1000’s of products and new technology. The question is who is going to be the pack leader and first major mover?
Hundreds of companies have claimed over the last 10 years to be able to produce and manufacture graphene all promising incredible benefits to their customers and amazing shareholder returns however £$€¥ millions have been lost by investors.
VRS have first mover advantage and UK PLC have invested £1 billion in graphene infrastructure to create a unique flywheel that becomes more and more difficult to replicate / catch up with day by day
The competition for producing graphene hasn’t started to arrive at scale … It will arrive over time (and probably sooner than I think as its benefits are so disruptive) but there is plenty of catching up to do. Below is a more detailed teardown of competitors you are likely to come across in your research with my opinions on them – this is not exhaustive but will hopefully make it easy to spot emerging competitors when they do arrive (please highlight any you think are real answering framework qus below!).
List of competitors (between the three links below you have most of the market!)
· https://www.slideshare.net/PhantomsNet/graphene-companies-catalogue-2016
Key questions, when reviewing to assess if they are real players:
- Are they fraudsters?!
- Who are the people running them and what is their background?
- What is their real business value proposition? Do they have the right background to win in this space or are jumping on a bandwagon?
- What type of graphene are they claiming to make in what way e.g. CVD graphene, Powders or inks
- What graphene applications are they focusing on – are these areas ready for commercialisation or still in research labs?
- Does it meet ISO standards / CPI specs?
- Have they got independent 3rd party data proving quality of their graphene?
- Can they produce commercial quantities?
- Can they, or do they have partners to support the product development of applications and testing so that customers can use it?
- Financials – are they a real business? Listed? Investors? Revenues? Cash (burn/flow/balance)?
- Newsflow – Are they communicating research collaborations, company progress or material sales orders or news that will impact the P/L?
Generally I group these companies into 4 types:
- Graphite producers: At least 75% of the market!
- Graphene producers: Mainly in research phase and struggling to test and prove applications and scale their CVD graphene manufacturing processes to meet quality, price and quantities to be commercially viable but may have some future but will burn through investors cash for years getting there
- Graphene Application Developers & Consultants: Not producers but trying to help companies test “graphene / graphite” and find ways to enhance their products
- Fraudsters: Plenty out there jumping on the “wonder materials” bandwagon!
Graphite Producers
China Graphene
There are c. 500 Chinese companies jumping on hype saying that they are producing tonnes of graphene but in reality it’s just “thin graphite solution” and they lack independent 3rd party real research to back up their claims. This is sucking in lots of Chinese investors and creating a bubble, but as per this article mentions the key gap is better regulation & standards for graphene and related applications.https://www.google.co.uk/amp/m.scmp.com/tech/innovation/article/2114455/soaring-share-prices-chinese-graphene-companies-prompts-bubble%3famp=1
My Opinion: China will be the force in this space as a) there are a large number of Chinese students researching graphene esp at University of Manchester, University of Cambridge b) they can vertically organise better than most, c) they are the worlds manufacturing centre so will need lots of graphene to enhance their wider industries d) They get the value of advanced materials like graphene across political, business and scientific leadership and they are beginning to throw lots of money at this space to make progress. However it is clear they are a number of years away from having a true graphene flywheel and they have a lot of churn in the market due to lack of regulation and standards.
Neill Ricketts 13/1/18 has just completed a trip to Jinan where it looks like he is very excited about a deal he has closed as his twitter posts show https://twitter.com/neillricketts .
- Gut feel is that it’s a JV for China
Talga Resources – http://www.talgaresources.com/IRM/content/default.aspx
(ASX: “TLG”) is a vertically integrated technology minerals company with its own carbon source in multiple high-grade graphite projects in northern Sweden. The graphite ores are unique in allowing graphite and graphene to be liberated without crushing in an innovative and extremely cost-effective way. The graphene produced is of a high quality and suitable for a range of large volume additive and technology applications
My Opinion: This is basically mining stock which has 100% ownership of 5 graphite mines in northern Sweden and creates bulk quantities of thin graphite in a solvent that they claim as graphene. They have no 3rd party research supporting any of their graphene claims just their own! (ISO standards / National Physics Laboratory will kill this claim). Secondly there is no proof that once they can create certified graphene that they can do so in commercial quantities, quality and prices. As a result they are partnering with “enablers” including Haydale and trying to secure funding for research to find applications for their materials. They do have a future as they have high quality graphite which is valuable in a number of applications including batteries e.g. Li-Ion anodes. They are part of a consortia who have recently won UK Government funding via the Faraday Battery Challenge (Note that only A$1m can be rebated against Talga expenses)
Directa.Plus – http://www.directa-plus.com/ Directa Plus is an Italian AIM listed £DCTA.L company and claims to be “one of the largest producers and suppliers worldwide of graphene-based products for use in consumer and industrial products. It has a unique and patented technology process and a scalable and portable manufacturing model. We produce graphene-based products at our own factory near Milan, Italy, and can set up additional production at customer locations to reduce transport costs, waste and time-to-utilisation. Our graphene-based products are natural, chemical-free and sustainably produced. They are found in commercial applications such as smart textiles, tyres, composite materials and environmental solutions, and they’re suitable for many other uses as well. We partner with our customers to enable them to offer the high-performance benefits of graphene, identified by the G+ brand, in their own products.”
My Opinion: Directa have been calling many layer graphite they produce as graphene and they claim in their 2016 Annual report
“Our manufacturing facility in Italy is capable of producing up to 30 tonnes per annum of non-toxic pristine graphene nanoplatelets – the most of any company in Europe, if not worldwide. We believe that this manufacturing capability and proven production process provides Directa Plus with an opportunity to become a leading player in the on-going and expanding commercialisation of graphene and associated nanomaterials”. http://www.directa-plus.com/rns/Directa%20Plus%20Annual%20Report%202016.pdf
My Opinion: They have no 3rd party verifying their graphene claims and have been good enough to create their own standards!
“the Company launched its own ‘G+ Certified Experience’ logo, which will be given to selected
partners to display on their products after testing has shown that the products contain the right quality and quantity of G+ to achieve the performance benefits advertised.”
My Opinion: Early on it was very insular with collaborations which always seemed to be with Italian companies http://www.directa-plus.com/Partnerships.asp and their much vaunted partnership with Vittoria for bike tyres https://www.graphene-info.com/directa-plus-supply-250-kilos-g-graphene-vittoria is delivering less than €100k per annum and is declining.
In 2016 sold 3.1 tonnes for about £600k which is £0.20p per gram it gives some idea re what it is v graphene sold at over £100 per gram. So the entire 30 tonnes would come out at £6 mill and they have something like £4 mill losses. They also had an £900k write down of returned product which says it all.
Revenue for the first half of 2017 was €0.3 million (H1 2016: €0.4 million) which shows their trajectory. This “thin graphite” does have a value for thinks like concrete and road surfaces but they are reliant on being awarded a grant from the European Regional Development Fund in respect of a €6.5 million project focusing on the development of innovative asphalts and bitumen based on G+ graphene.
Questionable Companies & Executives
Cambridge Nanosystems – https://cambridgenanosystems.com/
The company has developed a process to produce graphene at ultra-high quality and on a larger scale than has previously been possible by using biogas waste products such as Methane. Cambridge Nanosystems was spun out of Cambridge University in 2012 and in 2014 began partnering with Malaysia’s Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad (FGV), a global agricultural and commodities business. FVG has abundant supplies of Methane as that is a by-product of their large-scale palm oil production. They aim to achieve synergy through the relationship with Cambridge Nanosystems whose technology will enable that waste material to be turned into valuable Graphene.
In December 2014, Cambridge Nanosystems was awarded £500,000 from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. The funds were used to develop a manufacturing facility in Cambridge with the capability of producing up to 100 tonnes of Graphene a year for the European market. FGV and Cambridge Nanosystems are planning to build another plant in Malaysia to supply the Asian market.
My Opinion: Whilst the website sounds credible … their accounts are a mess (Made up to 31/12/2016 but due by 30/09/2017!), directors keep changing, sales very poor and then to top it off their major backer the Malaysian palm oil company FVG had their shares suspended and is under investigation for fraud – At the centre of the storm is Zakaria Arshad a director of Cambrdige Nanosystems!
On the product side, they claim that they could make synthetic graphene for composites, but for a full range of Graphene Nanoplatelets (GNPs) for composite applications and uses you need good aspect ratios and low defect ratios. Their lateral sizes are too small for composites and their GNPs have a poor aspect ratio and they crumple and fold in the production process. Versarien won all the tenders they submitted to the Centre Process Innovation (CPI) including Boron Nitride. There was a section for synthetic graphene with the CPI but nobody could meet the spec on lateral sizes so it went unfilled.
XG Sciences – http://xgsciences.com/
XG Sciences a US private company were one of the first movers in 2006 and big companies were looking for graphene years ago and fell for the XG sciences hype. Early on they were claiming to produce 30-50 tonnes of graphene and got companies to invest below: Notable investors in the Company
- Hanwha Chemical (MC $3.8 billion) – manufactures chemicals, resins, battery materials, and nanoparticles in Korea. Hanwha is an investor in XG Sciences and a development and sales partner. Invested $3 Million (December 2010)
- POSCO (MC $20 billion) – POSCO is a South Korean global company best known as one of the largest steel companies in the world. POSCO subsidiaries include global logistics businesses, construction, power generation, and advanced materials businesses. POSCO is a technology licensee and a manufacturing, sales and development partner. Invested $5.2 Million (June 2011 and March 2014)
- Samsung ($162 billion) – For over 70 years, Samsung has been dedicated to making a better world through diverse businesses that today span advanced technology, semiconductors, skyscraper and plant construction, petrochemicals, fashion, medicine, finance, hotels, and more. Samsung is an investor in XG Sciences and is a technology development partner. Invested $3.0 Million (January 2014). The Samsung Ventures JV ended after a year as they realised it was junk.
- Cabot – paid XG $4 million to XG as part of a licence deal.
My Opinion: Check the XG site, nowhere does it list evidence of performance of their GNPs in composites. Why don’t they do that it’s a big selling point – Its cause its crap!!
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026635381732482X – An independent research paper is by Professor Robert Young and Ian Kinlock both of the University of Manchester and National Graphene Institute Ian’s comment: “Together with Dr. Bissett and Prof. Young, I lead the Advanced Nanostructures Group within the School of Materials and the National Graphene Institute.” The graphene used was XG sciences M grade shown as an average of 18 layers of graphene. The tensile strength of composites with graphene is lower than the composites without graphene nanoplatelets. Therefore, the presence of filler that acts as foreign materials in the composites that caused the initial crack propagation in the composites itself. The composites with graphene nanopletelets exhibited brittle fracture, whereas the PP composites without graphene revealed plastic behaviour. Now if you check the VRS news about their results you will see it was the same team led by professor Young. http://www.iii.co.uk/research/LSE:VRS/news/item/2143043/completion-ngi-composite-project?context=LSE:VRS Versarien has been collaborating with the NGI since November 2014. Extensive trials of the graphene produced by Versarien’s subsidiary, 2-DTech, by an NGI team led by Professor Robert Young, Professor of Polymer Science and Technology at The University of Manchester, in carbon fibre composite products, has demonstrated the benefit of adding graphene, particularly with regard to significantly enhancing the strength of the structure. Professor Robert Young FREng, FRS, Professor of Polymer Science and Technology at The University of Manchester, commented: “The successful project demonstrated that the addition of 2-DTech XT graphene to the epoxy resin matrix was able to give a significant improvement in the performance of carbon-fibre reinforced epoxy composites.
XG are now attempting to sell themselves for an IPO “Since our inception we have incurred annual losses every year and have accumulated a deficit from operations of $(43,371,368). We also believe that we will need approximately $4.8 million to sustain us for the next 12 months. The Company’s financial projections show that the Company may need to raise an additional $15,000,000 or more before it is capable of achieving sustainable cash flow from operations.” So just short of $65 mill before they would get going in their opinion.
More recently DOW chemical (MC $74 billion) has given a credit facility to XG of $10 million. Terms state XG can only use the 2nd $5 mill of they get $10 mill backing from someone else. Dow are clearly in to clean up any patents on the cheap when XG (private company) go bust as they have a senior debt.
- XG sciences who said the DOW loan would give then 2 years have drawn down the last $1 mill as of 6th December 2017.
- http://xgsciences.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2016-12-21-XGS-Press-Release-on-Dow-Financing.pdf
- Electrical and Material are multi-layer re lateral sizes that isn’t graphene but multi-layer graphite.
- The only graphene Swan have that fits the description premium graphene. They do to get under 10 layer the lateral size suffers EG 500nm-1um lateral for premium.
Graphene Application Developers & Consultants
Haydale Graphene Industries – www.haydale.com
Aim listed company Haydale Graphene Industries (LON:HAYD), work to harness the potential of advanced materials through rigorous technical development, creativity and a focus on profitable business outcomes.
My Opinion: Their company presentation sounds compelling http://www.haydale-ir.com/archive/presentations/corporate-presentation-17-10-2017.pdf but they have a long history of sucking up investors cash and loosing lots of money! Haydale don’t even produce graphene, and are simply a customer to graphene producing companies but are then trying to build their own graphene enhanced products and applications. Problem is they are not in control of their costs of manufacturing graphene and they can’t easily adapt the graphene manufacturing process to the customers products applications so constantly fail to deliver. As a result, they are pivoting to becoming consultants to companies looking to apply graphene to their products.
Graphene producers
Thomas Swan
Thomas Swan http://www.thomas-swan.co.uk/advanced-materials/ are a private chemicals company and have been around for a long time. They have 3 grades of graphene: Electrical, material and premium.
My Opinion: Science papers from University of Manchester are clear that you need good lateral sizes to bond to composites. Synthetic versions are typically 500nm average which is no good for that sector.
- The CPI set the spec for a reason and that’s because at the right aspect ratio, layer level and defect ratio it actually works. Nothing Thomas Swan does fitted the CPI specifications.
- I believe that over time Thomas Swan will find applications, and commercialise them working with partners like Haydale to enable products but I don’t believe they are set up to be a major player otherwise University of Manchester, University of Cambridge would have chosen them to be a partner / shareholder to commercialise their Graphene tech.
Applied Graphene Materials – http://www.appliedgraphenematerials.com/
The aim of LSE listed Applied Graphene Materials (LON:AGM) is to be established as a leading global graphene enhanced material supply company and manufacturer of graphene.
Applied Graphene Materials claims it has developed and owns the intellectual property and know-how behind a proprietary “bottom up” process (Chemical vapour deposition) to produce high specification synthetic graphene. The process is based on sustainable readily available raw materials and therefore does not rely on the supply of graphite, unlike a number of other graphene production techniques. It can produce high purity graphene using a continuous process. Applied Graphene Materials provides dispersion and product integration expertise, to deliver solutions for a wide range of applications. The Company has scaled up it’s production facility and is currently engaged with customers across the globe to develop application specific, graphene enhanced materials.
My Opinion: Reality is that this business makes a lot of noise about its collaborations and progress but it is struggling to apply its graphene to partners applications and products as it is lacking the vertical integration that Versarien (LON:VRS) has to support with testing and researching applications. Whilst it uses the Chemical Vapour Deposition process to produce graphene it shows no signs of getting their tech to be commercially viable in producing graphene at a high quality / volume that can be consumed by partners.
Why did they not win the CPI tender for synthetic graphene, after all they commissioned the CPI to build their production facility mentioned above! You also think they would name / brand this new graphene product they have to stand out in the market like Versarien (LON:VRS) did with Nanene?!
It delivers almost no revenue (£0.3m 2017), lost millions each year (£4.3m loss in 2017!), has on £4m cash left in 2017 (should last 12-18 months before next placing!). It feels like a lifestyle share, but it could fly over time with the IP group holding so many patents and I can see it going up as shares are tight just based on any further hype and Investors oblivious to their ability to deliver Vs noise.
If you look at page 50 of their 2017 Annual Report they had 42 staff, costing £2,110m at c. £50k per head annual salary which is nice work if you can get it in County Durham!
Graphenea – www.graphenea.com
Graphenea, a technology company set up in 2010, as part of a joint venture of nanoGUNE with a group of private investors with the purpose of manufacturing and commercializing high quality graphene wafers and developing technologies based on this material.
- It employs 22 people and exports graphene materials to 60 countries, supplies its products to global operations for Universities, Research Centers and Industries.
- Its turnover reaches two million euros (Sept 2017).
- http://www.nanogune.eu/nanogune-at-a-glance – Goal is to put the Basque Country at the forefront of nanoscience research, thus contributing to the creation of the necessary conditions for the society to benefit from a wide range of nanotechnologies. The CIC nanoGUNE is a center created with the mission of addressing basic and applied world-class research in nanoscience and nanotechnology, fostering high-standard training and education of researchers in this field, and promoting the cooperation between science community agents and the industrial sector.
- In 2013 the company received an investment from Repsol to boost its technological capacity, support its growth as a business and enable it to maintain its international lead within the emerging graphene production sector.
- Graphenea is a partner of the Graphene Flagship. The EU launched this 10-year investment push research programme that aims to find ways of commercialising graphene.
My Opinion: This is about the most credible company that I can find as a competitor, as they are collaborating with the credible scientists and graphene research projects however they don’t really compare to VRS when it comes to testing, productising and commercially viable manufacturing of graphene:
- They have a capacity to produce 1 tonne per annum of Graphene Oxides (ISO standards will ensure this is called graphite oxide in the future) which is where the bulk of the €2 million revenue in 2017 probably come from
- They have a CVD process for creating high quality graphene membranes and films but are still in research phase with academics rather than ready for industrial manufacturing and commercial applications.
- https://www.graphenea.com/collections/buy-graphene-films – shows research level quantities and feels like they mainly service academics wanting high quality graphene for testing. When you work out the cost of this CVD graphene it is in the £tens of millions per kg as they are selling single atom layer CVD films for $47 to $129 each!!
- They also talk a lot about all their research projects for the future applications, unlike Versarien who are in many of the same collaborations, but they focus on staying quite until they have commercially ready applications and meaningful orders to announce.
Graphene in zero G promises success in space – December 15, 2017, Graphene Flagship
A collaboration between the Graphene Flagship and the European Space Agency, experiments testing graphene for two different space-related applications have shown extremely promising results
“Graphene as we know has a lot of opportunities. One of them, recognised early on, is space applications, and this is the first time that graphene has been tested in space-like applications, worldwide,” said Prof. Andrea Ferrari (University of Cambridge, UK), Science and Technology Officer of the Graphene Flagship.
· Graphene’s excellent thermal properties are promising for improving the performance of loop heat pipes, thermal management systems used in aerospace and satellite applications.
· Graphene could also have a use in space propulsion, due to its lightness and strong interaction with light.
- Two different types of graphene were tested in a collaboration between the Microgravity Research Centre, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium; the Cambridge Graphene Centre, University of Cambridge, UK; the Institute for Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity and the Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems, both at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Italy; and industry partner Leonardo Spa, Italy, a global leader in aerospace, operating in space systems and high-tech instrument manufacturing and in the management of launch and in-orbit services and satellite services.
- The team – named GrapheneX – designed and built an experiment to test graphene for use in solar sails, using free-floating graphene membranes provided by Flagship partner Graphenea.
Major award for graphene and 2D materials in biomedicine – Sept 2016
- £5.2m grant will examine how nanomaterials work in the human body. http://2d-health.com/will utilize selected unique properties offered by 2D materials and technologies and develop innovative solutions for specific unmet clinical needs in wound care and management (relevant to diabetes), tissue rehabilitation by electrical stimulation (relevant to dementia), cell therapeutics (relevant to cardiovascular disease), and immunotherapeutics (relevant to targeted drug delivery systems to attack cancer cells).
- Two specialist SME graphene companies, Versarien and Graphenea, will also collaborate with materials and industrial upscale expertise.