Feb 29,2024.
China has abundant lithium resources and a complete lithium battery industry chain, making it the world's largest lithium battery material and battery production base. In recent years, due to the demand for new energy vehicles, consumer electronics, and energy storage industries, lithium-ion battery materials have grown rapidly. Lithium ion batteries are mainly composed of four key materials: positive electrode material, negative electrode material, separator, and electrolyte, with cost proportions of 45%, 15%, 18%, and 10%, respectively. 1. Positive electrode material The positive electrode material accounts for the highest proportion of the total cost of lithium-ion batteries, and its performance directly affects the core performance indicators of lithium-ion batteries, such as energy density, safety, and cycle life. The positive electrode material serves as a lithium-ion source and has a high electrode potential, resulting in a high open circuit voltage for the battery. Structure diagram of lithium-ion batteries: Data source: Public information. According to the classification of positive electrode materials, lithium-ion batteries can be divided into technical routes such as lithium cobalt oxide, lithium manganese oxide, lithium iron phosphate(LiFePO4), and ternary materials. The current positive electrode materials mainly maintain a parallel pattern of lithium iron phosphate and ternary materials. The energy density improvement space of ternary material batteries is much greater than that of lithium iron phosphate cathode materials, while lithium iron phosphate batteries have the advantages of lower cost and relative safety. According to Baichuan Yingfu, China is expected to add a total of 1.625 million tons of lithium iron phosphate production capacity in 2023. From the perspective of market structure, the concentration of China's lithium iron phosphate industry is relatively high, with Hunan Yuneng and Defang Nanotechnology accounting for a relatively high proportion of production capacity, followed closely by manufacturers such as Changzhou Lithium Source, Hubei Wanrun, Rongtong High tech, Hunan Shenghua, Chongqing Terui, and Guoxuan High tech Power Energy. Ternary materials refer to positive electrode materials composed of nickel cobalt manganese or nickel cobalt aluminum, namely nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM) or nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA). NCM ternary materials are the main ternary materials used by Chinese enterprises. Their advantages lie in energy density, and the higher the nickel content, the higher the specific capacity. They are widely used in new energy passenger vehicles. Due to its high cost, it is mainly used in mid to high end vehicle models. The future high nickel production has a large market space and is also a key direction for technology research and industrialization of various ternary cathode material manufacturers. As of 2022, multiple positive electrode manufacturers have achieved the shipment of 9 serie...