How will the three international material companies of Umicore/BASF/Johnson Matthey arrange lithium cathode material?

Under the support of policies and markets, this year's domestic power battery continues to grow. With the increasing demand for energy density and performance of power batteries, the high-end cathode material market is also enjoying a broad development opportunity, which is currently regarded by international material giants the best time to speed up the pace of the layout.

Driven by strong demand in the power battery market, the pace of new rounds of expansion by international material giants has quietly accelerated.

Recently, the world's largest lithium battery cathode material manufacturer, Umicore, started construction of the cathode material project in Jiangmen. It plans to produce 200,000 tons of lithium battery cathode material and the required precursors and supporting nickel and cobalt. It is expected to be put into operation in the first half of 2019. The project plans to build a world-class production base for lithium battery materials for new energy vehicles.

It is understood that Umicore has long been optimistic about the prospects of China's new energy auto industry, and it has been a long-term preparation for investing in cathode materials in China. The Jiangmen project has an investment of 2.6 billion Yuan. The planned investment production line covers NCM111, 523, 622 and 811 systems, mainly targeting the domestic high-end power battery market.

In fact, under the support of policies and markets, domestic power batteries continue to grow this year. With the increasing demand for energy density and performance of power batteries, the high-end cathode materials market is also enjoying a broad development opportunity, and is currently being used by international materials. The giants see it as the best time to speed up the pace of the layout.

Coincidentally, another international giant, BASF, is also gearing up. Not long ago, BASF announced that it has tripled its production capacity of high-nickel positive active materials from BASF's Onoda production base in Japan, which was established by Toda, Japan.

Industry insiders believe that BASF will focus on Asia's production base in Japan based on cooperation with Toda. But its ultimate target market, like Umicore, is aimed at China's largest new energy vehicle market, China.

It is worth mentioning that Johnson Matthey, also an international chemical giant, is not weak. It is expanding its global energy power business with lithium cathode materials as its core. In September 2017, the English Financial Times article stated that Johnson Matthey would spend 1.8 billion Yuan to develop and mass produce lithium-ion high-nickel cathode materials (enhanced lithium nickelate).

Gaogong lithium battery has learned that some domestic material enterprises have been comparable to the international in material technology and performance quality, and some of them are going international, and the price is superior, but in the research and development of precipitation and later batch quality stability control is still relatively weak. It is foreseeable that the expansion of international material giants will have a certain impact on the domestic high-end cathode material market.

The industry generally believes that the domestic new energy vehicle market is still guided by policy subsidies. The demand for high-end, high-energy-density cathode materials may be released before and after 2020. After the subsidies are cancelled, the real core competitiveness of materials companies will be highlighted come out.

To this end, high-tech lithium-ion combed the layout of the above-mentioned three international material giants in the cathode material, a glimpse of its market strategy and layout strategy, in order to bring benefits to the industry.

Umicore: Exploring the optimal path for adapting the requirements of power battery materials

As the world's largest manufacturer of cathode materials for lithium batteries, Umicore has a global market share of more than a quarter. In the layout of China's cathode materials, the division and expansion of Umicore can be described as steady and steady.

For the market strategy of cathode materials, Umicore's thinking in the Chinese market is to focus on the best cost-effective medium-nickel materials in the short term. It believes that based on technical feasibility, cost advantages and the possibility of scale production, medium nickel materials are the best path for economical electric vehicles. But in the long run, it will be oriented towards high nickel materials.

According to the previously disclosed information, Umicore believes that from the current technology, the cost of materials from 811/NCA to the cost of battery packs is still very high, and whether the high price of electric vehicles can be recognized by the market after subsidies are retreated waiting for time and market inspection. In its view, medium and high nickel products should be adapted to different application platforms and different voltages, rather than all products pursuing high nickel.

In the context of national policy trends toward high energy density batteries, the development trend of high nickel cathode materials is unquestionable. It is understood that Umicore has always had technical reserves and mass production preparations in 811 products. Once the market demand is formed, the company can provide products at any time.

The stable supply of performance and quality and the strategy of adapting to the market demand have enabled Umicore to win the favor of some of the first and second echelon battery factories in China.

In fact, the weighted layout of Umicore's positive electrode materials project in Jiangmen also represents the determination of Umicore Group to actively participate in the construction of China's booming new energy auto industry, and long-term optimistic about the prospects of China's new energy auto industry.

BASF: Expanding high nickel capacity to authorize patent cooperation

In the global chemical giant, BASF's recent series of expansion actions have also attracted unlimited associations in the industry.

In December 2017, BASF announced that it has tripled its production capacity of high-nickel positive active materials from BASF's Odakada production base in Japan, established by Tofumi Toda Battery Materials Co., Ltd. (BTBM), which was established in Toda, Japan.

The industry understands that BASF wants to build a complete battery material product line with the production capacity and customer resources of Toda Industry in the field of cathode materials, and then use its existing global automotive industry chain sales network to become the world leader. Single battery / battery pack functional materials and parts suppliers.

BASF has put its production base in Asia in Japan, mainly based on the cooperation with Toda, but in the final target market, it must aim at China, the world's largest market for new energy vehicles.

In fact, as early as 2015, BASF moved its battery materials global business unit headquarters from the United States to Shanghai, and launched its second phase of the Asia Pacific Innovation Park. This move means that BASF has significantly expanded its R&D scale in the Asia-Pacific region, and through a series of new initiatives to make innovation closer to customers in the region, it also shows its emphasis on the Chinese market.

In addition to expanding production capacity, BASF's cooperation with China's cathode materials companies is also accelerating. Last month, BASF awarded Peking University a sub-licensing of patents related to the US Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) cathode materials.

The industry believes that patent licensing is the beginning of cooperation between BASF and domestic materials companies. With the further development of the domestic new energy vehicle market, the cooperation between the two parties will be further extended, and BASF's domestic lithium battery business will undoubtedly continue to increase the code. .

Johnson Matthey: Entering the field of high-energy nickel-based cathode materials

At the end of September 2017, the English Financial Times article stated that Johnson Matthey, the catalyst business for gasoline and diesel vehicles, would spend 200 million pounds (about 1.8 billion Yuan) to develop battery materials.

Johnson Matthey said that the reason why the increase in layout is optimistic about the future market opportunities of battery materials, according to projections, the global electric vehicle market penetration rate of 10%, will promote the battery material market size reached 30 billion US dollars.

In fact, due to the transfer of diesel in Europe and the penetration of electric vehicles, Johnson Matthey has predicted that sales of its catalyst business will slow down in the next few years. This is one of the reasons why Johnson Matthey has turned to positive electrode materials.

In terms of product strategy, the company's current largest cathode material business is lithium iron phosphate. At this stage, the main product is a high-energy nickel-based cathode material. Enhanced lithium nickelate (ELNO), which is said to have an energy density that exceeds the current all the ternary systems, the new positive electrode material enhanced lithium nickelate (ELNO) has entered the pilot stage.

Johnson Matthey has invested heavily in this project and plans to produce 10,000 mt of enhanced lithium nickelate (ELNO), which is expected to be used in electric vehicles in 2021-2022.

Johnson Matthey believes that lithium iron phosphate material has a broad market space in the field of start-stop batteries and bus logistics vehicles; in the passenger vehicle market, ternary and enhanced lithium nickelate (ELNO) dominates. Active materials with higher specific capacity such as high-voltage spinel are not used on a large scale due to technical conditions, but with technological breakthroughs, they will be used in the passenger vehicle field in the future.

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