Price of lithium cobalt raw materials rises. Positive materials restrict the cost of power cells

Introduction: cobalt prices continue to rise, supply and demand are unbalanced, reducing the proportion of cobalt has become the main way for battery plants to increase energy density and reduce costs, and the high nickel of ternary materials is an important direction for the development of new energy batteries in the future.

Recently, Lijianzhong, general manager of Shengsheng Technology, said at a forum that nickel, cobalt, and manganese have accounted for 90 % of the cost of positive electrode materials in power battery applications. "Normally, the cost of positive materials accounts for about 35 % of the total core, but this figure has now risen to 50 %. "

Positive materials account for an increase in the ratio of power cells, and the imbalance in the supply of raw materials such as lithium cobalt has caused great pressure on power cells to reduce unit costs. Industry experts believe that the power battery industry shuffling accelerated, competition, subsidies reduced or even eliminated will lead to a significant decline in prices. The strength of raw material prices will affect the battery company's gross profit rate, which is expected to drop to about 20 % in 2018 from about 30 % currently.

In the given route, the ternary battery is the one that is likely to achieve the intended goal.

The Action Plan for the Development of the Automobile power battery Industry, released in March 2017, proposes that the power cell system should reach 260Wh/Kg by 2020. In the current system, the energy density of the ternary battery exceeds 200 Wh/Kg, and lithium iron phosphate is 160 W/Kg. The cost and price of the ternary is basically the same as that of lithium iron phosphate. The industry generally believes that ternary batteries are the most feasible technology route to achieve the 2020 goal.

Lithium cobalt raw material price rise positive electrode material becomes the key to limit the cost of power battery

However, the imbalance between supply and demand of raw materials such as lithium cobalt seriously restricts the development of the power battery industry in China.

In terms of raw materials for lithium batteries, China is heavily dependent on imports, and the oligopolistic effect continues to stand out. Global cobalt reserves are extremely uneven, with the Congo accounting for 54 % of the total reserves, while China's reserves are only 1.11 %. Among them, difficult copper and nickel associated minerals are the main ones. Independent mineralized cobalt minerals account for only 4.7 % of the country's reserves. China is a poor cobalt country, but it is the world's largest demand country for cobalt. In 2017, China's demand for cobalt accounted for about 45 % of the world's total. The large gap between supply and demand makes more than 90 per cent of our cobalt imports dependent.

The growth of downstream demand is strong, and the imbalance between supply and demand is increasing. Data show that global cobalt supply in 2017 was 108,000 tons, and demand was 113,000 tons, a gap of 4,820 tons. Power car ternary battery is the core source of cobalt demand. In recent years, the rapid development of power car industry has directly broken the balance of cobalt supply and demand.

In this context, reducing the proportion of cobalt has become the main way for battery plants to increase energy density and reduce costs. This also leads to the high nickel of ternary materials is an important direction for the development of new energy batteries in the future.

China's power cells first produced the NCM111 model, and then began mass production of the NCM523 model. At present, many battery companies have begun to exert NCM622, and in the future they will become NCM811 and NCA. This trend is due to the fact that Ni and Co are the main active materials in ternary materials. The continuous increase in the ratio of Ni to Ni will increase the specific capacity of the material and meet the requirements of increasing battery energy density.

"It's hard to imagine how most battery factories will make money this year I'm afraid only a few can make the battery cost 1.3 yuan / Wh, and other battery plants are very difficult. Mr Lijianzhong believes that for some time to come, the cost of batteries will also depend on access to resources, otherwise it will be difficult to secure supplies.

Nancewen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also believes that the current increase in high-specific energy of batteries has encountered bottlenecks, and battery materials have restricted the development of high-specific energy batteries. At this stage, the material is the first, the industry should vigorously explore new battery materials.

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