Graphene's twists and turns in the field of lithium-ion batteries

The supply of raw materials is strong, and the industrial chain is coming.

On February 28th, the Lithium Industry (002460) issued the 2017 Performance Express, when the company achieved a total revenue of 4.383 billion yuan, an increase of 54.12 % year-on-year; The net profit of shareholders belonging to listed companies was 1.458 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 213.95 %.

The announcement disclosed that there are two main reasons for the growth in the performance: First, the RIM lithium pyroxene mine began to mine in 2017, ensuring the company's raw materials supply; Second, the downstream lithium battery market demand is strong, driving the rapid growth of the upstream battery material industry.

As a representative domestic manufacturer of lithium compounds, the Lithium industry currently sells lithium compounds, metallic lithium and lithium battery products. In recent years, the demand for new energy industries, especially power batteries, has soared rapidly, ushering in huge opportunities for development in the lithium industry. A complete industrial value chain including upstream lithium resource extraction, deep processing of lithium compounds, lithium metal production, lithium battery production, and lithium recovery has been gradually established.

The achievement of excellent performance in 2017 is inseparable from the deployment of Lithium in the industry, middle and lower reaches of the year:

Upstream: In early 2017, the lithium mine project of RIM, a subsidiary of RIM in Australia, was successfully put into operation, which enhanced the raw material support capacity of Lithium Lithium, and then Lithium Lithium again increased its capital to RIM by A$ 20 million, further strengthening the company's raw materials supply. According to the data, the current RIM lithium ore project has reached the capacity scale of 400,000 tons of lithium concentrate per year;

Subsequently, the Lithium industry took part in the Australian lithium exporters Pilbara Minerals and the lithium industry in the Americas, respectively, and obtained the underwriting rights and interests of the corresponding ore and brine water resources. Pilbara is expected to start production in the second half of 2018, and the lithium industry in the Americas will enter the production stage in 2019. By then, the mine supply and processing production of the lithium industry in Ganfeng will be unprecedented.

Midstream: In 2017, the Lithium industry completed the issuance of convertible bonds, and respectively raised 15,000 tons of lithium carbonate and 20,000 tons of lithium hydroxide projects. By the end of 2017, 15,000 tons of lithium carbonate projects under the Lithium industry had been put into production.

In terms of lithium hydroxide, under the active reserve in 2017, lithium hydroxide in the Ganfeng industry is expected to increase significantly in 2018. On the one hand, 20,000 tons of lithium hydroxide is expected to be put into production after the Spring Festival in 2018, and it can contribute about 3 quarters of production; On the other hand, a 17,500-ton lithium carbonate production line under construction in the Lithium industry is also expected to be put into production in the fourth quarter of 2018 and is expected to contribute one quarter of production.

It is worth noting that the Lithium industry has revealed that because the current demand for lithium carbonate is greater than that of lithium hydroxide, its lithium hydroxide production line is mainly used for the production of lithium carbonate products, and the process of converting lithium carbonate is simple. It is estimated that 20,000 tons of lithium hydroxide production capacity can be converted to 15,000 tons of lithium carbonate. The type of product produced by the subsequent production line will depend on the market demand.

Downstream: Through fundraising, the Ganfeng Lithium industry increased its capital to the subsidiary Jiangxi Ganfeng Battery by about 277 million yuan, which was used for the construction of the Lithium-iron phosphate square aluminum shell battery project at 600 million watts. As of now, the project products have been tested and certified by the client. And get a small amount of orders.

In addition, through the introduction of Dr. Xu's team from Ningbo Materials Institute in 2017, the Lithium industry has officially cut into the solid battery plate. At present, the laboratory technology of the project has made breakthroughs. The Lithium industry plans to invest 250 million yuan in the construction of solid batteries. The trial production line, the scale exceeds 100 million watts, according to the plan, the first-generation solid-state battery plan for the Lithium industry will be put into production in early 2019.

In the context of downstream terminal market demand and the continued soaring price of upstream lithium resources, the Lithium industry has focused on lithium resources and has basically built an ecosystem with its own characteristics, which will provide greater space for the company's future performance growth. However, it is necessary to be vigilant that with the continuous highlighting of the important position of upstream mineral resources, many domestic and foreign forces are stepping up the distribution of lithium mineral resources, or it will have an important impact on the current supply pattern of lithium resources.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.