BYD Ningde grabbed a high nickel 811 battery. The high nickel ternary era really came.

Recently, BYD and Ningde era have been reported that the high nickel 811 batteries will be launched next year! Previously, the two giants seemed not to be active in high-nickel 811 batteries because companies such as Bic Battery and Guoxuan Gaoke had already mass-produced high-nickel 811 batteries. And the national power battery field boss and the second, finally shot, the signal is very obvious, high nickel ternary era really came!

This is certainly something to celebrate. Another news that seems to be "different from the cattle and horses" has attracted the attention of the battery China Network. On August 14th, the Li Feng industry issued an announcement that the Li Feng industry and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Yan Feng International, signed a contract with LG Chemical and agreed to sell lithium hydroxide products to LG from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2022. A total of 47.6 million tons.

LG Chemical purchased lithium hydroxide on such a large scale. The specific purpose was not disclosed, but LG Chemical's high-nickel 811 battery is well known, although it had previously announced the postponement of the mass production plan. The industry knows that lithium hydroxide is a key ingredient in making high-nickel 811 batteries, which leads to speculation that LG chemistry has greater ambitions.

High nickel 811 batteries are inseparable from lithium hydroxide

Why must high nickel 811 batteries use lithium hydroxide as a raw material? Because high nickel materials must be synthesized at high temperatures in a pure oxygen environment, the kiln material must be resistant to oxygen corrosion, and the temperature must not be higher than 800 °C when sintering, and lithium carbonate is used as a raw material, resulting in a strong alkalinity and sensitivity to humidity. Increased, affecting battery performance.

Compared with lithium carbonate, high nickel ternary materials made of lithium hydroxide have higher energy density and better charging and discharging properties. Studies have shown that using lithium hydroxide as a lithium source material, the first discharge capacity is as high as 172 mAh/g, and it has a better vibration density and a greater rate of charging and discharging performance. The three positive poles NCM811, NCM622 and NCA all use lithium hydroxide as a raw material to gradually replace lithium carbonate.

High nickel 811 battery pulls lithium hydroxide demand

In recent years, the power cell gradually tilts to the three-way battery with high energy density, while the three-way positive electrode material gradually transitions to high nickel. With the adjustment of national policies and the high price of cobalt, the high-nickel 811 battery has become the development trend of future power cells. At present, the problem of cylindrical 811 material battery technology has been basically solved. 2018 is considered to be the first year of high-nickel 811 battery production.

With the increase in demand for high-nickel batteries, the demand for lithium hydroxide is expected to increase significantly. Industry insiders believe that high-nickel ternary batteries based on battery-grade lithium hydroxide will gradually become the mainstream of market demand in 2019. In general, about 787.5 tons of lithium hydroxide are required for each 1 GWH high nickel ternary battery. According to projections, global demand for battery-grade lithium hydroxide or burst growth is expected to reach 47,000 tons in 2018. The complex growth rate of demand for lithium hydroxide in the global battery sector is expected to reach 78 % between 2018 and 2020.

Globally, with the mass production of Model 3, Tesla Super plant has become an important demand driver for lithium hydroxide. Tesla needs to consume about 24,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide each year to achieve the goal of an annual production of 500,000 vehicles per vehicle and an annual production capacity of 35GWh for Super battery plants. Only the Tesla family's corresponding demand for battery-grade lithium hydroxide in 2018, 2019, and 2020 will be as high as 23,800 tons, 33,000 tons, and 46,200 tons, respectively.

Lithium hydroxide is booming.

Lithium hydroxide is gradually favored, while lithium carbonate is inevitably lonely, which is already reflected in the price. Since the battery-grade lithium carbonate slipped from the height of 168,000 yuan per ton in October 2017, the price of lithium carbonate has been declining as the market's expectation of oversupply of lithium carbonate has gradually fermented. As of July 2018, Battery grade lithium carbonate quoted 11.3-11 .8 million yuan per ton. The falling price of lithium carbonate is mainly due to insufficient demand in the downstream market, the industry said on an investor interaction platform.

In contrast to the falling price of lithium carbonate, the price of lithium hydroxide is bullish. In July 2018, battery-grade lithium hydroxide was quoted at 13.5-15 million yuan/ton, which is expected to reach more than 180,000 / ton in 2018. It is expected that in 2018, China's cathode materials will require between 7,000 tons and 10,000 tons of powder grade lithium hydroxide(higher than battery grade), accounting for about 15-20 tons of the total supply of lithium hydroxide throughout the year. In the second half of 2018, it is expected that the price of slightly powdered lithium hydroxide will remain high and the price difference with lithium carbonate will further increase.

Large supply gap of lithium hydroxide

The demand for lithium hydroxide has greatly increased. However, from the supply side, the current production capacity of lithium hydroxide in the international giants is not large, and the existing domestic production capacity seems to be quite a lot. However, the most reliable one is mainly the one with mineral resources. Lithium industry, Tianqi lithium industry and other few companies, It is unclear how much capacity other companies will release in the future, and it will take another 1-2 years for new capacity to expand.

Data show that in 2017, the global production of lithium hydroxide was 47.5 million tons, the demand was 50.1 million tons, and the gap was 0.26 million tons. The industry believes that in the future, if there is no major substantive breakthrough in the industrialization of lithium extraction from salt lakes in China, the gap between the supply and demand of domestic battery-grade lithium hydroxide will be greater, and the price of battery-grade lithium hydroxide may also rise to 200,000. Tons or more steps.

Battery China Network believes that with the advent of the high nickel 811 era, lithium hydroxide will surely become the object of competition for the global battery industry giant, and downstream battery companies and vehicle manufacturers will purchase large quantities of lithium hydroxide from the lithium industry to ensure the supply of battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Lithium, or enter into a strategic partnership or even a joint venture with it, it is the only way.

As the leader of the power battery industry in China, BYD and Ningde entered the high nickel 811, will certainly have a major impact on the high nickel battery market pattern, and will also strengthen the power battery industry in China. LG chemical "first" Ganfeng lithium industry, can be said to be deep thinking, domestic companies should also be prepared for the next step to do plans?

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.