Development trend of battery recycling industry

On February 26, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Energy Bureau jointly issued a notice on the "Interim Measures for the Management of the Recycling and Utilization of Power Battery for New Energy Vehicles". Automobile manufacturers, battery manufacturers, scrapped car recycling and dismantling enterprises and comprehensive utilization enterprises have cooperated in various forms to jointly build and share waste power battery recycling channels.

Policy-intensive release pushes battery recycling to burst

On January 5, Xin Guobin of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed at the National Power Battery Innovation Center and the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance Special Reporting Conference that it is necessary to release the power battery recycling management method as soon as possible, focusing on the pilot work and forming a relatively mature recycling system. Unexpectedly, in the more than one month after that, the seven ministries and commissions jointly issued the Interim Measures for the Administration of Recycling and Utilization of New Energy Vehicles' Power Battery. It can be seen that the policy attaches importance to the recycling of batteries.

In recent years, China's new energy vehicle market has been increasing. According to the data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in January 2018, China's new energy vehicles grew at a high rate year-on-year, with production and sales of 40,569 units and 38,470 units, respectively, up 4.6 times and 4.3 times respectively. The data shows that in 2018, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China will usher in new growth.

On February 26, Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang said that according to the development plan promulgated by the State Council, by 2020, the annual output of new energy vehicles should reach 2 million vehicles. I hope that the next step will be doubled every other year. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to have a strong Innovation ability. In the next year, the annual growth rate is more than 40%. The growth rate of new energy vehicles that are guaranteed by the Ministry of Science and Technology has given the market confidence.

As a core of new energy vehicles, the power battery usage has also risen. The industry expects that the first batch of electric vehicles has already run more than 200,000 kilometers. From the perspective of battery life, starting from 2018, the first batch of domestic automotive power batteries will soon usher in the “end of the tide”.

The performance of the power battery will be attenuated as the number of times of charging increases. When the battery capacity is reduced to less than 80% of the rated capacity, the power battery is not suitable for use in an electric vehicle. The recycling of power batteries is mainly divided into two ways: step utilization and disassembly. The use of ladders refers to the use of decommissioned power batteries in energy storage, distributed photovoltaic power generation, low-speed electric vehicles and other fields to play a reuse value. When the battery cannot be used for the ladder, it needs to be disassembled and recovered, that is, the recyclable power battery is disassembled and recycled.

Since December last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has successively promulgated the "Promoting Program for the Extension of Producer Responsibility System", "Specifications for Dismantling and Dismantling of Vehicle Power Battery", "Specifications and Dimensions of Power Battery for Electric Vehicles", and "Code for Encoding Automobile Power Battery" The policies and standards for recycling and utilization of related batteries, such as "Recycling and Residual Energy Testing for Vehicle Power Battery", fill the gap in battery recycling regulations, and the implementation of these policies will accelerate the development of the power battery recycling industry. In addition, in order to strengthen the management of recycling and utilization of power batteries, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology plans to introduce the Interim Measures and Pilot Implementation Plan for the Management of Recycling and Utilization of New Energy Vehicles' Power Battery in the near future, and deploy them in the national pilot program. Although the current policies and regulations do not form a sound system, from the recent dynamics, relevant policies are in the process of being elaborated. I believe that in the near future, scientific and perfect industry norms and standards will be formed.

Enterprises attach importance to perfecting recycling system

With the warmth of policy, companies that are sensitive to policy smells naturally move.

It is reported that the listed company Nandu Power has built a relatively complete recycling industry chain for recycling of used batteries, and has formed a fully enclosed industrial chain of “raw materials – product application – operation services – resource recycling – raw materials”, and has become a storage and lead resource recycling leaders in multiple fields. Nandu Power announced that it expects net profit of home in 2017 to increase by 10%-40% year-on-year, which is a certain decline compared with the performance guidance of the third quarterly report. However, Nandu Power's annual net profit is stable and growth-free.

Nandu Power announced on November 7 last year that 100 million yuan will set up a wholly-owned subsidiary, Anhui Nandu Huabo New Material Technology Co., Ltd. to carry out lithium battery recycling business and plans to invest 1 billion yuan to build a 150,000-ton waste lithium battery comprehensive recycling project. In addition, it has also clearly expanded the lead recycling, from 300,000 tons to 700,000 tons, and the processing capacity reached 1 million tons, which is at the international leading level. The production capacity of recycled lead began to show a growth trend. Nandu Power will further build a comprehensive utilization platform for lithium battery recycling, lead battery recycling and other non-ferrous metal recycling with Huaplatin Technology as the main platform, and open up the power, energy storage, communication and resource recycling industrial chain. Promote sustainable development of the industry.

Not long ago, Plyde, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oriental Seiko, signed a Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement with BAIC Group, Ningde Times and Peking University First Branch to carry out strategic cooperation in various aspects of power battery R&D, manufacturing, recycling and cascade utilization. On January 4, 2018, China Railway Tower Corporation signed a strategic partnership agreement with 16 new energy companies such as Chongqing Changan, BYD, Waterma and Guoxuan Hi-Tech in Beijing. This cooperation is landmark cooperation in China. And Tianqi Lithium Industry, Haofeng Lithium Industry, Penghui Energy, Guanghua Technology and other enterprises have already seized the opportunity in battery recycling.

The layout of waste battery recycling in enterprises is beneficial to enterprises to establish a sound recycling system for used power batteries, form a complete closed loop of power battery recycling, and effectively improve their capacity in the construction and operation of lithium battery materials. For the entire recycling industry, the dynamics of large enterprises will play a guiding role for other companies in the industry. In the near future, other companies will follow the trend and continue to develop the layout of battery recycling. For the country, the recycling of used batteries can promote the country's sustainable economic development, boost the national energy conservation and environmental protection, and defend our green and blue sky.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.