Needless to say, lithium-ion batteries are a type of battery made of lithium metal or lithium alloy as a negative electrode material, using a non-aqueous electrolyte solution. Lithium batteries can be roughly divided into two categories, lithium metal batteries and lithium ion batteries. Lithium batteries are mainly used in digital products in traditional fields, and power batteries and energy storage in emerging fields.
China has rich lithium resources, a complete lithium battery industry chain, and a huge pool of basic talents, making mainland China the world's most attractive region in terms of the development of lithium battery and its material industry, and has become the world's largest production base of lithium battery materials and batteries. With the development of science and technology, lithium battery has become the mainstream and widely used.
In the lithium battery manufacturing industry chain, the core part of battery pack manufacturing is the battery cell. After the battery cell is packaged, the wiring harness and PVC film are integrated to form the battery module, and then the wiring harness connector and BMS circuit board are added to form the finished power battery. Among them, lithium battery electrolyte is lithium ion battery is used as a carrier to drive lithium ion flow, the working principle of lithium ion battery is the process of charge and discharge, is lithium ion between the positive and negative electrode shuttle, and electrolyte is the medium of lithium ion flow. The main function of the diaphragm is to separate the positive and negative electrodes of the battery, prevent the contact between the two poles and short circuit, in addition to the function of electrolyte ions through.
In electric vehicles, the cost of lithium electricity accounts for the largest proportion, nearly half, and the cost of lithium electricity, in turn, the value of cathode materials accounts for the largest proportion. The industrial chain panorama is as follows:
Upstream industrial chain
The upstream of lithium battery industry chain is the mining and processing of raw materials, mainly including cobalt, manganese, nickel, lithium, graphite materials, carbon materials, etc. It is understood that lithium cobaltate has been used as the main anode material since the commercialization of lithium ion batteries. Because of its low operating voltage, lithium cobaltate is mainly used in small batteries, such as mobile phones, computer batteries and so on. Lithium iron phosphate has the characteristics of high structural stability, high thermal stability and excellent cyclic performance at room temperature. In recent years, lithium iron phosphate is widely selected as the development direction of lithium ion power batteries in China.
As shown in the figure, the upstream mainly includes positive electrode materials (lithium carbonate, lithium cobaltate, lithium manganate, lithium nickelate, terpolymer materials), negative electrode materials (graphite materials, lithium titanate, silicon carbon negative electrode, carbon materials), electrolyte (solvent, additive, lithium hexafluorophosphate, new lithium salt), diaphragm, and other auxiliary materials (copper foil, aluminum foil, conductive agent, dispersant, aluminum plastic film, binder).
The data of cost ratio is shown in the figure below:
Obviously, positive materials have the highest cost and high technical barriers. The cathode material technology content is low, so the cost is relatively low, easy to expand production. The following chart shows the price trend of lithium carbonate. Due to the monetary stimulus plan of the United States, the currency inflation has been led to a sharp rise in the price of upstream raw materials and cyclical industries such as nonferrous metals, coal and chemicals.
1.1 Lithium resources
Global lithium resource concentration is high, the top four reserves account for 96%. According to the data released by the United States Geological Survey, the global lithium reserves in 2017 were about 16 million tons, an increase of 1.5 million tons compared to 2016, mainly distributed in Chile, China, Australia and Argentina, four countries accounted for 96% of the total reserves, a high concentration.
Industrial distribution of global lithium consumption structure in 2017
Lithium resources show the characteristics of oligopoly, with CR6 accounting for 84%. In view of the global competition pattern of proven lithium salt, lithium ore has the characteristics of high monopoly. At present, the effective supply of lithium resource market is mainly concentrated in the hands of SQM, ALB, FMC, Tianqi, Ganfeng and other leading enterprises, with six enterprises accounting for 84%. In the short term, the effective production capacity of lithium resource still comes from these enterprises.
1.2 Cobalt Resources
Cobalt resources are highly concentrated, mainly distributed in Congo and Australia. The world's cobalt resources are rich on the whole. According to the data released by the US Geological Survey, the global cobalt resource reserves were about 7.1 million tons in 2017, mainly distributed in Congo and Australia, accounting for 49% and 16.8% respectively.
From the perspective of global cobalt supply, China's cobalt resources are relatively scarce. Foreign giants Glencore's production capacity accounts for 21%, Luoyang Molybdenum accounts for 12%, the two companies together account for 33%, and the rest of the manufacturers are within 5%. In 2018, 60% of the world's cobalt was used in batteries, and the proportion in China exceeded 80% and continues to rise, with limited demand in other sectors. Thus, cobalt demand changes are closely related to lithium battery cycles.
A - share mainly Luoyang Molybdenum, Huayou cobalt, Hanrui cobalt.
Cobalt resources appear oligopoly, three companies share up to 40%. The global upstream cobalt resources are mainly controlled by multinational mining enterprises such as Glencore, Luoyang Molybdenum and Eurasia Resources. The three enterprises account for more than 40% of the global cobalt ore output. Luoyang Molybdenum is the leader, but it is not the most flexible because of its large size and because only half of its business structure is copper and cobalt.
At present, the market share and sales volume of cobalt salt (note that it is cobalt salt, not cobalt metal) of Huayou Cobalt Industry accounts for 35% in China and 18% in the world, ranking first in the world, with a scale 10 times that of its competitor Hanrui. This year, Huayou will release a total production capacity of 10,000 tons, and in recent years, it is ready to extend to the downstream three-way power battery. No matter from what point of view, Huayou has the highest industrial chain closeness with power battery, and is the real leader in the upstream cobalt industry of batteries.
China's cobalt consumption sector in 2017
1.3 Nickel Resources
The concentration of global nickel resources is lower than that of lithium and cobalt. In 2017, the global nickel resource reserves were about 74 million tons, mainly distributed in Australia, Brazil and Russia, among which Australia ranked first in the world with reserves of 19 million tons, accounting for 25.7% of the total.
Nickel consumption in China in 2017
