Author | Han Zhexi; Editor | Zhang Lin
New energy vehicle sales are increasing, GAC Chairman complained that car companies are working for CATL , medium and large electrochemical energy storage power stations are not allowed to use ternary lithium batteries... Lithium batteries are inevitably becoming the "match-up place" in the new energy industry today.
lithium battery consists of a positive electrode material, an anode material, a separator and an electrolyte. Generally speaking, the market's evaluation of lithium batteries mainly involves dimensions such as energy density, cycle life, safety and cost, and the main factor that determines these performance is the positive electrode material, whose cost accounts for about 40% of the overall cost of lithium batteries.
According to the use of positive electrode materials, lithium batteries can be mainly divided into lithium iron phosphate battery and ternary lithium batteries. Lithium iron phosphate batteries have the advantages of good safety, easy to obtain raw materials, low cost and excellent circulation performance, but their energy density is low and generally maintained at around 160Wh/kg. The biggest advantage of ternary lithium batteries is that their energy density is high, which can reach 350Wh/kg, but the risk of thermal runaway and short cycle life. At the same time, the high raw material cost is also a shortcoming of the development of ternary lithium batteries.
reflects the market size of positive electrode materials, according to GGII data, in 2021, the shipment volume of positive electrode materials in my country was 1.13 million tons, and increased by 116% year-on-year. Among them, the shipment of lithium iron phosphate positive electrode materials was 480,000 tons, an increase of 258% year-on-year; the shipment of ternary positive electrode materials was 430,000 tons, an increase of 80% year-on-year. It is estimated that China's positive electrode material shipments will reach 4.71 million tons by 2025.
2017-2025 China's positive electrode material shipment and forecast (unit: 10,000 tons) Source: Gaogong Industrial Research Institute (GGII)
On the other hand, in June this year, the Comprehensive Department of the National Energy Administration clearly stated in the "Twenty-five key requirements for preventing power production accidents (2022 edition) (Draft for soliciting opinions)" that medium and large electrochemical energy storage power stations are not allowed to use ternary lithium batteries. This means that lithium iron phosphate materials with higher safety and lower cost will be combined with the development opportunities of the electrochemical energy storage market, and their market share is expected to further increase.
In addition to lithium iron phosphate and ternary materials, the market is still making new attempts around the technical route of positive electrode materials. In the first half of this year, lithium manganese iron phosphate emerged. Rongbai Technology and Dangsheng Technology both officially announced new products of lithium manganese iron phosphate positive electrode materials. First-tier battery manufacturers including CATL and Xinwangda have also begun to deliver samples to car companies.
At present, in terms of the overall industry of domestic lithium battery positive electrode materials, positive electrode materials are in the middle of the industrial chain, which is a key link that determines the cost and performance of lithium batteries, and there are various types of manufacturers. For example, titanium dioxide companies represented by China Nuclear Titanium Dioxide have resource advantages, and are attracted by the high prosperity of the power battery market, and have begun to make cross-border layouts last year; and downstream battery manufacturers represented by BYD and Guoxuan Hi-Tech have a trend of extending their business upward in order to ensure the supply of positive electrode materials in the fierce market competition, or participate in or expand production.
20 China's lithium battery positive electrode material market structure by output (unit: %) Source: Forward-looking Industry Institute
This article will sort out the basic situation of relevant suppliers according to the type of positive electrode material, roughly divided into ternary material suppliers, lithium iron phosphate manufacturers, and lithium iron manganese iron phosphate manufacturers, and some companies that have crossed the border from the upstream raw materials field to the midstream positive electrode materials in recent years.
ternary material manufacturer
At present, increasing the nickel content in ternary positive electrode materials is a relatively obvious development trend of nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary lithium batteries. On the one hand, this can increase the battery energy density and thus increase the range of electric vehicle , and on the other hand, it can alleviate the cost problems caused by the soaring cobalt price. Therefore, high nickelization has also become an obvious direction for the development of ternary positive electrode materials, and the market share of ternary material manufacturers, mainly 8-series and 9-series products, is expected to further increase.
2021 ternary material manufacturers top 7 rankings Picture source: Xinliu Information
Rongbai Technology
Ningbo Rongbai New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2014 and was created by industry experts from China and South Korea. It was listed in 2019. It has a total of 141 registered patents. The products are mainly high-nickel ternary positive electrode materials, including NCM523, NCM622, NCM811, Ni90, NCA, etc. Among them, NCM811 product technology and production scale are in the leading position in the industry, with the largest domestic market share for many years.
By the end of 2021, the production capacity of positive electrode material .12 million tons. Currently, it has supplied CATL, BYD, LG Chem, YI Lithium Energy , Jiewei Power , Fineng Technology , Fineng Technology , Weilan Battery, etc. In the first half of this year, Rongbai Technology is expected to achieve a net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 710 million to RMB 760 million, a year-on-year increase of 121.18% to RMB 136.76%.
Bamo Technology
TianjinBamo Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2002. It is a leading domestic ternary positive electrode material company, Huayou Cobalt Industry Holdings. The main products are lithium cobalt oxide and ternary materials (including high nickel). It has two industrial bases in Tianjin and Chengdu. Chengdu Bamo Technology was awarded the world's first "zero carbon factory" certification for lithium battery positive electrode materials in April this year.
Bamo Technology now has the production capacity of 100,000 tons of positive electrode materials per year. The main customers include CATL, BYD, CATL New Energy , Samsung and LG, etc. In 2020, Bamo Technology achieved revenue of over 4 billion yuan and net profit attributable to shareholders of 189 million yuan.
Dangsheng Technology
Beijing Dangsheng Materials Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2001 and originated from a research group of the central enterprise Mining and Metallurgical Technology Group Co., Ltd. and was listed on the GEM in 2010. The company has obtained a total of 200 authorized patents, and its main business includes lithium battery positive electrode materials and precision die-cutting equipment. The products are mainly diverse materials, lithium cobalt oxide and lithium manganese oxide . In July this year, six new products were released, including ultra-high nickel cobalt-free, new manganese-rich positive electrode, lithium manganese iron phosphate, solid lithium battery positive electrode, solid electrolyte and sodium ion battery positive electrode materials.
By the end of 2021, the company's actual production capacity is close to 50,000 tons. Customers cover Samsung SDI , LG Chem, Panasonic , CATL, BYD, BYD, BBK Battery and other internationally renowned lithium battery manufacturers. Dangsheng Technology is expected to achieve a net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 900 million to RMB 1 billion in the first half of the year, an increase of 101.33% to RMB 123.70% year-on-year.
Changyuan Lithium Science
Hunan Changyuan Lithium Science Co., Ltd. was established in 2002 and was listed in 2021. It has nearly 80 independent innovation patents. The main products include multi-material precursors, multi-common positive electrode materials, lithium cobalt oxide and other lithium battery positive electrode materials, and nickel-hydrogen battery positive electrode materials. In April this year, Changyuan Lithium Science announced that it would invest in the construction of a project with an annual output of 60,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate to lay out the lithium iron phosphate positive electrode material.
In 2021, Changyuan Lithium ternary cathode material production capacity reached 40,900 tons. Customers include mainstream lithium battery manufacturers such as CATL, BYD, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Xinwangda, Funeng Technology, Tafir , and Honeycomb Energy. The net profit in the first half of the year is expected to be RMB 720 million to RMB 780 million, an increase of 129.64% to RMB 148.77% year-on-year.
Zhenhua New Materials
Guizhou Zhenhua New Materials Co., Ltd. was established in 2004 and was listed in 2021. It is a leading domestic positive electrode material supplier. It has obtained 15 independent intellectual property rights invention patents authorizations, focusing on single crystal ternary material technology, including medium nickel, medium and high nickel and high nickel, and is a core competitive product of the company.
By the end of 2021, the company has built a production line of 50,000 tons of positive electrode materials. Its existing customers include CATL, Funeng Technology, Dofluoro , Tianjin Lishen , Zhuhai Guanyu, Weihong Power and other battery manufacturers. Zhenhua New Materials' net profit attributable to shareholders in the first half of the year was 650 million yuan to 700 million yuan, an expected year-on-year increase of 330.29% to 363.39%.
In June 2022, Zhenhua New Materials announced that it plans to raise 6 billion yuan to expand the production of high-nickel ternary cathode materials. After the project is completed, it will add a production capacity of 100,000 tons of cathode materials annually.
Ruixiang New Materials
Nantong Ruixiang New Materials Co., Ltd. was established in 2006 and is now a holding company under Gansu Jinchuan Group. It is one of the top 10 companies in the market share of positive electrode materials in China. He has more than 40 invention patents. The main products include ternary materials and lithium manganate. The current production capacity is 30,000 tons, covering lithium battery customers in China, Japan and South Korea.
Xia Tungsten New Energy
Xiamen Xia Tungsten New Energy Materials Co., Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xiamen Tungsten Industry Co., Ltd. . It was separated from its parent company in 2016 and split to Science and Innovation Board in 2020. The company's products cover a full series of new energy materials such as lithium cobalt oxide, ternary materials, precursors, lithium manganese oxide, lithium iron phosphate, high nickel materials, NCA, etc. Among them, the main types of NCM ternary materials are mainly high-voltage series products. The new high-voltage 6-series ternary materials have been successfully used in electric vehicles with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers.
By the end of 2021, the production capacity of Xiamen Tungsten New Energy's positive electrode material was about 80,000 tons. Customers include Panasonic, Samsung, Ningde New Energy, LGC, China Innovation Airlines, BYD, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech and other well-known battery manufacturers. Xiamen Tungsten New Energy's net profit attributable to shareholders reached 532 million yuan in the first half of the year, an increase of 112.19% year-on-year.
htmlOn July 20, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy issued an announcement stating that the company has reached a cooperation with ternary precursor leader Greenmei on the development of the new generation of precursor products, and agreed that Greenmei will supply precursor products to Xiamen Tungsten New Energy in the next five years with an expected total number of 455,000 tons to 540,000 tons.lithium iron phosphate manufacturer
lithium iron phosphate is a positive electrode material with early development and relatively mature technology. It has developed rapidly around 2014. Since 2017, as the subsidy policy for new energy vehicles encourages models with high range and high energy density, and the electric vehicle market itself pays more and more attention to the range, ternary materials with higher energy density "ceiling" have gradually surpassed lithium iron phosphate to become the market dominant.
However, in the past two years, with the rise in the price of cobalt and nickel, the cost advantage of lithium iron phosphate is obvious. In addition, the leading battery manufacturers have increased the maximum energy density of lithium iron phosphate to 255Wh/kg by changing the module structure (such as BYD blade batteries), and lithium iron phosphate has thus achieved a "counterattack". Data from the China Automobile Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance shows that the annual installed capacity of domestic ternary batteries in 2021 was 74GWh, accounting for 48%, and the annual installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries was 80GWh, accounting for 52%. The annual installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries exceeded that of ternary batteries for the first time.
At the same time, the recovery of lithium iron phosphate market has further driven the production expansion and cross-border boom of related companies.
2022 Q1 lithium iron phosphate material competitive landscape Picture source: Qidian Research
Hunan Yuneng
Hunan Yuneng New Energy Battery Materials Co., Ltd. was established in 2016. CATL and BYD acquired shares in 2020. They are both shareholders and major customers. They passed the IPO in June this year. The products are mainly lithium iron phosphate, accounting for nearly 99% of the total revenue in 2021, and also include lithium-ion battery positive electrode materials such as ternary materials. Serving customers such as CATL, BYD, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Honeycomb Energy, Vision Power, Ganfeng Lithium Battery, Ruipu Energy, Ningde New Energy, etc.
Hunan Yuneng has an annual production capacity of 190,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate. In 2021, Hunan Yuneng's lithium iron phosphate shipments were about 120,000 tons, with a market share of 25%, ranking first in China. In the first quarter of 2022, Hunan Yuneng achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of 1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1772.93%.
In June 2022, Hunan Yuneng IPO plans to raise 1.8 billion yuan to expand annual output of 120,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate and other projects.
Defang Nano
Shenzhen Defang Nano Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2007 and was listed in 2019. It has been authorized for more than 50 invention patents. The company was engaged in nanomaterial development in the early days, and in 2008, it successfully applied nanoification technology to lithium iron phosphate. The core product is nano lithium iron phosphate, which is produced by self-heating evaporation liquid phase method, serving customers such as CATL, BYD, and Yiwei Lithium Energy. It also established a joint venture with CATL and Yiwei Lithium Energy to conduct large-scale production expansion.
Defang Nano's current production capacity is 155,000 tons. In 2021, Defang Nano lithium iron phosphate shipments exceeded 90,000 tons, with a market share of 19%, ranking second in China.In the first quarter of 2022, Defang Nano achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of approximately RMB 762 million, a year-on-year increase of 1402.77%.
In June 2022, Defang Nano completed a private placement to raise 3.2 billion yuan, which will be used for the production base project of a new phosphate -type positive electrode material annually.
Guoxuan Hi-Tech
Hefei Guoxuan Hi-Tech Power Energy Co., Ltd. was established in 2006. It is not only a domestic first-line power battery manufacturer, but also a mainstream supplier of lithium iron phosphate positive electrode materials. Guoxuan Hi-Tech has self-built material bases in Lujiang, Anhui, Feidong, Anhui, Yichun, Jiangxi, Wuhai, Inner Mongolia and Hujuyi Province, Argentina. The main products include lithium iron phosphate, ternary positive electrode materials, etc., mainly self-supply.
In 2021, Guoxuan High-tech lithium iron phosphate material shipments exceeded 50,000 tons, with a market share of 10.4%, ranking third in China. In the first quarter of 2022, Guoxuan Hi-Tech's net profit was approximately RMB 32.2 million, a year-on-year decrease of 32.79%
On June 8, 2022, Guoxuan Hi-Tech's annual production of 200,000 tons of high-end positive electrode material project was officially put into production. The main product of the project is the high-performance lithium iron phosphate positive electrode material independently developed by Guoxuan Hi-Tech with a single cell energy density ≥210Wh/kg.
Hubei Wanrun
Hubei Wanrun New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2010. It passed the IPO of the Science and Technology Innovation Board in August this year and is expected to be listed within the year. The main products cover lithium iron phosphate positive electrode materials and precursors, lithium manganate positive electrode materials, etc., and serve customers such as CATL, BYD, Wanxiang 123, AVIC Lithium Battery , Ganfeng Lithium Industry , Yiwei Lithium Energy and other customers.
Hubei Wanrun currently has an annual production capacity of 40,000 tons. In 2021, the domestic market share of lithium iron phosphate materials is 8.3%, ranking fourth in the shipment of lithium iron phosphate. In the first quarter of 2022, the company achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 232 million, a year-on-year increase of 261.20%.
In August 2022, Hubei Wanrun plans to raise 1.262 billion yuan through IPO to expand the production of 50,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate positive electrode materials and other projects.
longpan Technology
Jiangsu Longpan Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2003 and was listed in 2017. It was mainly engaged in automotive chemicals in the early stage. In 2021, it acquired all businesses of Bertray lithium iron phosphate to establish Changzhou Lithium Source. Lithium iron phosphate is the company's current main source of revenue. Products include lithium iron phosphate, high-nickel ternary precursor lithium battery materials, etc. Serving customers such as CATL, BYD, Ruipu Energy, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Lishen Battery and other customers.
has an annual production capacity of 90,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate. In 2021, the domestic market share of lithium iron phosphate materials was 6.4%, ranking fifth in the shipment of lithium iron phosphate. In the first half of the year, the net profit attributable to shareholders was 433 million yuan, an increase of 196.32% year-on-year.
In April 2022, Longpan Technology announced that the company plans to invest 1.9 billion yuan to build a lithium iron phosphate positive electrode material production base project in Xiangcheng District.
Rongtong Hi-Tech
Hubei Rongtong Hi-Tech Advanced Materials Co., Ltd. was established in 2016. It mainly engages in the research and development, production, recycling and utilization of lithium battery positive electrode materials. Its independently developed high-pressure lithium iron phosphate positive electrode materials have leading performance indicators in the industry and serves customers such as BYD, Paineng Technology, and Nandu Power Supply .
In July 2022, Rongtong Hi-Tech completed a round D financing of over 5 billion yuan. The investors include GAC, FAW , Dongfeng , SAIC, NIO , Xiaomi , Chendao, Xiangyu, National Green Development Fund and National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund , etc. The financing funds will be used to continue to expand the production capacity of lithium iron phosphate positive electrode materials.
Rongtong Hi-Tech has built an annual production line of 100,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate positive electrode material, and is expanding more than 300,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate material and recycling production line. It is expected that the company's operating income will exceed 10 billion this year.
Anda Technology
Guizhou Anda Technology Energy Co., Ltd. was established in 1996 and was listed on the New Third Board in 2014. The products are mainly lithium iron phosphate and its precursor iron phosphate. Serving customers such as BYD, CATL, AVIC Lithium Battery, and ZTE Paineng. Among them, BYD is not only the largest customer of Anda Technology and the ninth largest shareholder of Anda Technology.
At the end of 2021, Anda Technology's annual production capacity of lithium iron phosphate materials reached 40,000 tons. In the first quarter of 2022, Anda Technology achieved a net profit of 352 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15,137.60%.
In July 2022, Anda Technology completed a private placement of 354 million yuan, which will be used to build 60,000 tons/year iron phosphate and 50,000 tons/year lithium iron phosphate production lines.
Lithium manganese iron phosphate manufacturer
After doping a certain proportion of manganese elements in lithium iron phosphate, lithium manganese iron phosphate material can increase the energy density by 15%-20% compared with lithium iron phosphate. In addition, lithium manganese iron phosphate has a cost advantage, which is about 28% lower than lithium iron phosphate.
Since July this year, the lithium manganese iron phosphate market has been constantly news. Some analysts believe that since lithium manganese iron phosphate and lithium iron phosphate are similar in preparation methods, the current phase manufacturers are mainly leading manufacturers of lithium iron phosphate. In addition, Rongbai Technology, the leader in ternary materials, also intends to enter the lithium iron phosphate market with lithium manganese iron phosphate.
Rongbai Technology
As a leading domestic ternary materials company, Rongbai Technology stated at the press conference in July this year that it planned to deploy lithium manganese iron phosphate positive electrode materials. In July 2022, Rongbai Technology announced that it would acquire Scorland for 389 million yuan. Scorland mainly engaged in lithium manganese iron phosphate positive electrode material and has a production capacity of 6,200 tons/year.
In August 2022, Rongbai Technology said that the new production line of lithium manganese iron phosphate has been successfully debugged, and the shipment volume has grown significantly to reach 200 tons/month. The planned production capacity in 2025 is 300,000 tons.
Dangsheng Technology
The leading ternary material Dangsheng Technology launched a new positive electrode material for lithium manganese iron phosphate - LMFP-6M1 at the press conference in July this year. This product uses lithium manganese iron phosphate alone, with a manganese content of up to 65% and a specific capacity of 155mAh/g. Can be shared with the current lithium iron phosphate production line.
DF Nanometer
On July 22, CATL stated at the power battery conference that M3P batteries have begun mass production, and the lithium manganese iron phosphate material used in M3P batteries will be supplied by Defang Nano. A relevant person in charge of Defang Nano said that the company will put 110,000 tons of lithium manganese iron phosphate positive electrode material into production in the fourth quarter of this year.
hengc Nano
Jiangsu Hengchuang Nano Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2022. It is a start-up enterprise engaged in the research and development and production of lithium manganese iron phosphate positive electrode materials. The founding team comes from Dow Chemical and GE. The company owns the global core patent for buying out Lithium manganese phosphate and other battery materials from Dow Chemical . Hengchuang Nano is currently under construction with an annual production capacity of 5,000 tons and is expected to be put into production by the end of the year.
In February 2022, Hengchuang Nano completed a pre-A round of financing of over 100 million yuan, led by Yueda Investment , followed by Hillhouse Venture Capital, Woyan Capital, Skyworth Group , Jizhi Technology, and Kaishi Capital.
cross-border layout enterprises
With the strong production and sales of new energy vehicles and the demand for lithium iron phosphate market increases, since last year, some phosphorus chemical and titanium dioxide enterprises have successively entered the lithium iron phosphate market with their resource advantages and existing industrial chain advantages to make production capacity layout.
Xinyangfeng
Xinyangfeng Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 1982 and is a leading domestic phosphorus compound fertilizer enterprise. With the help of the upstream phosphate ore resource advantages and the complete phosphate chemical industry chain, Xinyangfeng began to deploy lithium iron phosphate after 2021.
In 2022, Xinyangfeng successively invested in iron phosphate production bases in Zhongxiang, Hubei and Yidu, Hubei, with an estimated investment of 6 billion yuan to build 300,000 tons of iron phosphate, 150,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate and related supporting projects. In May this year, Xinyangfeng's annual production line of 50,000 tons of iron phosphate has reached the standard and put into production. The first phase of iron phosphate will be supplied to Longpan Technology's enterprises. In the first half of 2022, Xinyangfeng achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 911 million, a year-on-year increase of 31.71%.
Jinpu Titanium Industry
Jinpu Titanium Industry Co., Ltd. was established in 1989 and is one of the largest titanium dioxide production enterprises in China. In May 2022, Jinpu Titanium issued an announcement stating that it plans to invest 1.28 billion yuan to build integrated projects of new energy battery materials such as 200,000 tons/year battery grade iron phosphate and 200,000 tons/year lithium iron phosphate.
CNK titanium dioxide
CNK Huayuan Titanium Dioxide Co., Ltd. was established in 1989 and is a leading domestic titanium dioxide production enterprise. Its main products are high-end rutile titanium dioxide . In February 2022, CNK titanium dioxide announced that it plans to invest 12.1 billion yuan to build a lithium iron phosphate project with an annual output of 500,000 tons.
