Tracking the expansion of 10 overseas lithium battery materials companies

Under the background of rising global demand for lithium batteries, the expansion in the field of supporting materials has been urgent.

From the perspective of terminal demand, Europe has raised its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, has generous incentives for new energy vehicle subsidies, the United States may return to the Paris Agreement, and Tesla and traditional car giants' heavy electric models continue to be launched.

Data forecasts that overseas new energy vehicle sales will increase to 2.34-2.50 million units in 2021, with a sales penetration rate of 3.6%-3.8%; the sales range is expected to reach 6.15-8.08 million vehicles in 2025, with a sales penetration rate of 9.4%-12.3%.

From the perspective of the supply side, in the short and medium term, the current insufficient supply of upstream materials is constantly creating pressure for battery price increases, and new production capacity is urgently needed to ease the "stalemate" state of price increase negotiations. In the long run, the iterative acceleration of material system innovation will support the lower prices of global power and energy storage systems under the effect of industrial scale. Oil level prices may come in 2023-2025.

In terms of material segmentation, from the perspective of regions and expansion content, Gaogong Lithium Battery Tracking recently (the end of 2020 to present) some overseas lithium battery material expansion cases found the following characteristics:

1. The cathode materials are concentrated in South Korea and Japan. Compared with the negative electrode, the expansion of cathode materials is more urgent, especially the South Korean cathode material factory is accelerating the pace of expansion. Judging from the recent pace of expansion, the trend of ternary high nickel is obvious.

2. Traditional graphite anode materials are concentrated in Australia, and the scale of expansion is equivalent to that of cathode materials. It is worth noting that the current silicon-based anode industrialization process is still in the financing and research and development stage, and it will take some time to actually enter mass production. This part is mainly in Europe and the United States (such as Silanano, Envate, E-magy).

3. There is a clear trend to build copper foil factories overseas, mainly in South Korea. The production bases of SKNexilis and Nissin copper foil have begun to expand to Southeast Asia and Europe.

4. Considering that the major companies in China's electrolyte industry have entered the supply chain of global battery giants on a large scale, there are not many overseas electrolyte expansion companies, mainly in Japan.

In terms of the amount of investment, the total investment in overseas projects exceeds 13 billion yuan, of which the largest investment in cathode materials.

From the perspective of customer structure, this round of overseas lithium battery material expansion is mainly centered on Samsung SDI, SKI, LG, Panasonic and other Japanese and Korean head battery companies.

In fact, this round of lithium battery material expansion has begun to take shape from the expansion pace and orders of battery companies this year, including SKI's expansion of electric vehicle battery production capacity in the United States, Samsung SDI expansion of battery production capacity in Hungary, and Panasonic and Tesla signed a contract. Supply agreement.

In terms of capacity planning, by 2013, LG Chem plans to expand its annual production capacity to 260GWh, Samsung SDI plans to increase its production capacity to 130GWh, and SKI's plan to increase its production capacity to 85GWh. In addition, Panasonic's US Gigafactory plant is preparing for Tesla to increase its production capacity to 54GWh.

It is foreseeable that, driven by the production capacity targets of Japanese and Korean battery companies, like the domestic materials industry, the expansion of overseas lithium battery materials companies will also enter a state of accelerated expansion.

Cathode material

Pohang Chemical

In January, foreign media said that POSCO, a subsidiary of POSCO, had raised 1.3 trillion won (approximately 7.7 billion yuan) through an issuance of new shares to fund its lithium battery materials business. At the end of February, Pohang Chemical announced that it would invest 275.8 billion won (approximately RMB 1.6 billion) to expand its cathode material production capacity and triple its existing production capacity.

Currently, Posco's cathode material plants in Gwangyang City and Gumi City have annual production capacity of 30,000 tons and 10,000 tons respectively. It plans to expand its ternary material production capacity in South Korea to around 68,000 tons around 2022. Prior to this, Pohang Chemical had signed a positive electrode material supply agreement with UltiumCellsLLC, a battery joint venture between General Motors and LG Chemical.

In addition to expanding production in South Korea, Posco Chemical's joint venture plant in Tongxiang, China and Huayou Cobalt will officially put into operation in 2020. In the future, it will release 30,000 tons of ternary cathode material production capacity.

Sumitomo

According to foreign media, Japan's Sumitomo Metal Mine plans to double the current capacity of on-board lithium battery cathode materials by 2027. It is also considering building a new smelter in Indonesia that extracts nickel from ore (the main raw material for cathode materials). It is expected in 2021. Before the fiscal year (ending March 2022), 35 billion yen (approximately RMB 2.2 billion) will be invested.

Sumitomo Mine has two smelters in the Philippines that extract nickel from ore, and is considering building a third plant in Indonesia. After completion, the overall annual nickel production capacity will increase by 40%, from the current approximately 90,000 tons to approximately 130,000. Ton.

In 2019, Sumitomo's global market share of high nickel cathode materials was 42%. At present, almost all the cathode materials used in Tesla's pure electric vehicles in the United States are provided by Sumitomo Mines through battery supplier Panasonic. Driven by Tesla's increased production of pure electric vehicles, Sumitomo decided to increase production capacity.

EcoProBM, South Korea

Recently, EcoProBM stated that it will invest 240 billion won (approximately RMB 1.38 billion) within the year to expand the ternary material production capacity of CAM5N and CAM6 projects in Pohang City, and plans to expand the total ternary material production capacity in 2023. To 80,000 tons.

Previously, EcoProBM and SKI signed a purchase agreement to supply SKI with a cathode material valued at US$2.32 billion (approximately RMB 16.1 billion) with 80% nickel content by the end of December 2023. To supply SKI, EcoProBM plans to invest 80 billion won to build a new CAM5-N plant.

The new CAM6 production line will provide cathode materials for Samsung SDI. In 2020, EcoProBM and Samsung SDI will establish a joint venture to produce cathode materials. The goal is to increase the production capacity of cathode materials including the joint venture by 150,000 tons, and achieve an annual production capacity of 180,000 tons in 2023.

South Korea L&F

In December 2020, L&F and LG New Energy signed a supply agreement of 1.45 trillion won (approximately RMB 8.4 billion), thereby becoming the world's first large-scale mass production of NCMA-type quaternary materials for cathode companies.

To ensure supply, L&F plans to spend 250 billion won (approximately RMB 1.44 billion) to build a new factory in Daegu City to expand its cathode capacity, and expand its cathode material capacity from the current 50,000 tons/year to 80,000 tons by 2023. year.

At present, L&F has two main production bases in South Korea, as well as a cathode material factory in Wuxi, China-Wuxi Guangming Future New Material Co., Ltd.

BASF

At the end of 2020, BASF officially started construction of its cathode material plant in Schwarzheim, Germany. The initial annual production capacity of the plant is designed to provide BASF battery materials for approximately 400,000 pure electric vehicles, and it is planned to start production in 2022. The project received 175 million euros (approximately RMB 1.43 billion) financial support from the German federal government and state governments.

Prior to this, BASF's precursor project in Harkamarta, Finland has started, which will supply raw materials for the Brandenburg cathode material project. BASF plans to start two factories at the same time in 2022.

Anode material

Novonix, Australia

Recently, the Australian battery materials company Novonix completed a financing of about 146 million US dollars (about 950 million yuan). Novonix said that it will use the raised funds to expand the production scale of its battery anode materials to 10,000 tons per year, and plans to reach the annual rate by 2025. The production capacity is 40,000 tons to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles and energy storage systems in the North American market.

At the end of 2019, Novonix signed a transaction agreement with Samsung SDI to supply graphite anode materials to Samsung SDI; in early 2020, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Sanyo Electric to supply graphite anode materials. Sanyo Electric has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Panasonic. It means that Novonix will become Panasonic's negative electrode supplier.

EcoGraf, Australia

In mid-February, foreign media reported that after raising 54.6 million Australian dollars (approximately RMB 270 million), the Australian graphite materials company Ecograf was ready to accelerate the construction of its commercial-scale battery anode material purification facilities in Western Australia.

The initial production capacity of the plant is 5,000 tons per year, which will be expanded to 20,000 tons per year to meet the expected growth in demand. Combined with EcoGraf's European production base, by around 2025, the company's total annual output of battery-grade graphite will reach 40,000 tons.

Copper foil

SKNexilis, South Korea

On January 27, South Korea’s SK Group announced that its subsidiary SKNexilis will invest 650 billion won (approximately 3.8 billion yuan) to build its first overseas copper foil plant in Malaysia. The plant has an annual production capacity of 44,000 tons. Ground will be broken in the first half of 2021, and commercial operations will begin in 2023.

SKNexilis currently operates four factories in South Korea, with a total annual production capacity of 34,000 tons. By the second half of 2021 and early 2022 when the No. 5 and No. 6 factories are built, its production capacity will be increased to 52,000 tons. After the Malaysian plant is put into production, its total copper foil production capacity will reach 96,000 tons, which is three times the current production capacity.

In terms of production capacity planning, SKNexilis plans to invest in Europe, America and Malaysia to increase its copper foil production capacity by more than five times by 2025.

Korea Nissin Copper Foil

South Korea’s Nissin Copper Foil Company announced that it will invest more than 11 million euros (approximately RMB 87.19 million) to establish its first European copper foil production base in Hungary to provide its customers with nearby supporting services.

The Nissin Copper Foil European plant mainly produces copper foil products below 10μm, with a monthly production capacity of about 320 tons. The main customers include Samsung SDI, SKI, LG Chem, BYD and other head power battery companies.

Electrolyte

Mitsubishi Chemical

In January, foreign media reported that Mitsubishi Chemical plans to increase the global production capacity of electrolytes for electric vehicle batteries by about 50%, and will spend billions of yen to increase electrolyte production. These funds will be used to upgrade the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. The plant's equipment plans to increase the global annual production capacity to 90,000 tons by 2023.

According to the report, the current global share of Mitsubishi Chemical in lithium-ion battery electrolyte is about 20%, and its main customer is Tesla battery supplier Panasonic. It has nearly 300 patents related to electrolyte, and it will use these patents to propose the best manufacturing method for battery manufacturers. At present, its products have been widely used in automotive lithium batteries in Japan, the United States, Europe and other markets.