April 15, 2026:  A coalition of battery material producers in the US is pushing legislators to do more to remove supply-chain “choke points” and loosen China’s grip on the market.

The Battery Advocacy for Technology Transformation (BATT) coalition said on April 6 it is working with lawmakers to implement enhanced tax credits that can boost domestic production of battery components.

BATT, formed to protect investments in a robust supply chain, particularly for EV batteries, is also urging US trade chiefs to set price floors for critical materials and components, as part of new trade deals with friendly nations to “further undermine Chinese market manipulation”.

On the Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit program — designed to help domestic producers flourish and move away from Chinese-made or control of battery components — BATT has told the US Treasury that defining ‘effective control’ of foreign entities (like China) of a battery supplier will be “a decisive factor in determining who is eligible for the tax credit”.

Coalition policy director Drew Ronneberg said it was not credible that a downstream supplier would not know that materials supplied for a battery to function included those produced by prohibited foreign entities.

“Treasury should therefore interpret ‘effective control’ to encompass functional and operational control, not merely formal governance rights.”

BATT executive director, Samm Gillard, said the US government and private sector had made significant strides to build a more sustainable domestic industrial base for battery materials and components.

“We now have opportunities to supercharge those investments with more robust policies. But how we implement them will determine whether domestic producers double down on their commitments and we can truly break China’s lock on this strategic industrial sector.”

BATT has cited several examples of how dependency in highly concentrated markets can confer effective control, even where the input represents a relatively small share of total product value.

These include electrolyte salt, produced almost entirely in China and used in nearly all lithium ion batteries. While it only represents 2% to 5% of a cell’s value, Chinese specified foreign entities could effectively control US production because the Chinese government could restrict exports, BATT said.

Graphite, used in more than 95% of lithium ion battery anodes, is also primarily produced by Chinese entities, BATT said. “Although graphite generally represents less than 15% of cell value, US manufacturers remain dependent on Chinese-controlled supply.”

On cobalt, around 80% of production and refining is controlled by Chinese entities. “This concentration enables China to exert effective control over downstream production through export restrictions, despite cobalt representing only a minority share of total cell value.

“These China-controlled choke points make lithium ion battery supply chains vulnerable to disruption through price manipulation or the imposition of export controls.”

Earlier this year, US assistant energy secretary Audrey Robertson held talks on supply chain resilience and energy security with other nations during the Indo-Pacific Energy Security Ministerial and Business Forum in Japan.

Latest analysis reported by Batteries International last month laid bare the economic might of China’s grip on the world’s battery sector — with EV plants facing $17 billion in losses for every month of a potential halt in cell exports.

According to International Energy Agency estimates, EV plants in the EU would account for over half of those losses for each month of an interruption in supply chain exports from China.