Blog
The Chinese lithium battery industry chain has initially forged strong overseas capabilities
1. Market: Domestic lithium battery companies have occupied a core global position，withcontinuous overseas large orders
China is the main producer and exporter of lithium batteries globally, and its lithium batteryshipments have been ranked first in the world for several consecutive years.
According to industry data, the shipment volume of power lithium batteries in China in 2023 was630GWh, accounting for over 70% of the global market share; The shipment volume of energystorage lithium batteries exceeds 200GWh, accounting for over 90% of the global market. Amongthe top 10 global lithium battery companies, Chinese companies occupy six positions，andcompanies such as CATL and BYD continue to increase their market share in China and overseas.
2. Engineering: China has outstanding advantages in lithium battery manufacturing capabilities
China’s lithium battery production capacity accounts for over 70% of the world’s total.Batterymanufacturers and equipment suppliers have rapidly iterated technology through rich practiceand large-scale construction processes,and their engineering capabilities have continuouslyimproved.They have formed excellent competitiveness in cost control, equipment production,equipment accuracy, and other aspects. A group of supply chain enterprises have also set up newproduction capacity overseas.According to incomplete statistics from GGll, more than 20 lithiumbattery material companies have set up factories overseas in 2023 alone, including key materialsand structural components of lithium batteries, with a planned total investment of over 115billion yuan.
3.Founding, the lithium battery industry remains the main force in attracting funds
According to GGll statistics,since 2023, Chinese lithium battery industry chain enterprises haveraised a total amount of nearly 100 billion yuan through lIpOs, of which the lithium battery sectorhas raised over 20 billion yuan. The raised funds are mainly used for project construction andresearch and development center construction;Non listed companies are also frequently favoredby capital,such as Haichen Energy Storage,which received over 4.5 billion yuan in Series Cfinancing in July 2023.
Chinese lithium battery companies have the basic competitiveness of globalization and overseasfactory construction.At the same time, they also face a series of challenges when going abroad,such as talent and supply chain systems, local regulations, and social and cultural differences.
.lithiumega, as one of the LithiumegaBattery Companies,we believe the future of China renewable energy industries, will be better..
China's Lithium Battery Industry Enters TWh Era iiaeoeoere
ln 2023, the competition in the lithium battery industry is fierce, with core keywords includingprice war, production capacity, fast charging, large capacity,going global, large cylinders, sodiumions, etc.The specific summary is as follows:
(1) The production capacity utilization rate of top lithium battery enterprises exceeds 50%, but theproduction capacity utilization rate of third tier and below battery enterprises is less than 30%;
(2) Fast charging and cost reduction are the main themes of the lithium battery industry. Theprices of power and energy storage batteries have almost halved, with a decrease of over 40%;Shenxing battery/top current battery/flash charging battery released,supporting 4C fastcharging;
(3) The development of large capacity energy storage batteries is accelerating. More than 30companies have released 300+Ah batteries,while companies such as CATL and EVA LithiumEnergy have launched 50O+Ah large batteries;
(4) The shipment of new battery products has not yet increased in scale, and the shipment oflarge cylindrical, sodium ion, and solid-state batteries is less than the beginning of the year.
The shipment volume of lithium batteries is 886GWh, a year-on-year increase of 35%
According to data from the Lithium Battery Research Institute, the shipment volume of lithiumbatteries in China in 2023 was 886 GWh,a year-on-year increase of 35%.Among them, theshipment volumes of power, energy storage, and digital batteries were 630 GWh, 206 GWh, and49 GWh, respectively, a year-on-year increase of 31%,58%, and 3%.
Development Forecast of Lithium Battery Industry in 2024
The development trends of China’s lithium battery market in 2024 include:
(1) The utilization rate of effective production capacity in the power battery market (excludingineffective production capacity that has not been started or has not passed downstreamverification) will be less than 55%, and the utilization rate of effective production capacity in the energy storage battery market will be less than 40%;
(2) Fast charging lithium batteries are facing breakthroughs in both quantity and quality, withmainstream product rate performance moving from 1.3-1.7C to 1.7-2.5C;
(3) The shipment volume of (semi) solid state batteries is expected to reach 5GWh level, and fullpole ear steel shell series large cylindrical batteries for power will usher in GWh level bulkdelivery in the passenger car field.
Trends of the Four Major Lithium Battery Materials in 2024
In 2023, the shipment volume of China’s lithium battery positive electrode market was 2.48million tons, a year-on-year increase of 31%.
From the perspective of positive electrode material product structure: In 2023, the shipmentvolume of lithium iron phosphate positive electrode materials reached 1.65 million tons,ayear-on-year increase of 48.3%， with a market share of 66%, an increase of nearly 7 percentagepoints; The shipment of ternary cathode materials reached 650000 tons, a year-on-year increaseof 2%, and the market share declined to 26%; The shipment volumes of lithium manganese oxideand lithium cobalt oxide are 100000 tons and 84000 tons respectively.The increase in theproportion of shipments of lithium iron phosphate materials is mainly driven by energy storageand power lithium iron batteries.
lt is expected that the Chinese positive electrode material market will have the followingcharacteristics in 2024:
(1) The lithium cobalt oxide material market is expected to see a slight growth of 1-3%;
(2) Driven by the segmented small power market,the shipment volume of lithium manganeseoxide materials is expected to increase by over 8%. The proportion of shipments oftetramanganese lithium manganese oxide materials will exceed 75%;
(3) The shipment volume of fast charging ternary materials is expected to exceed 8000 tons;
(4) The proportion of high nickel ternary material shipments is expected to exceed 50%;
(5)The shipment volume of lithium manganese iron phosphate material will exceed 30000 tons,with a year-on-year growth of over 500%
The negative electrode material industry in China will exhibit the following trends in 2024:
(1) Supply and demand remain surplus, and the industry’s capacity utilization rate remains around50%.lt is expected that the number of discontinued enterprises will exceed 4o;
(2) The price war continues, with a price decrease of over 10% compared to the end of 2023;
(3) Fast charging artificial graphite with a capacity of 2 350mAh/g, compaction of 2 1.6g/cm3, and4c or above will be loaded on a large scale.
lt is expected that the diaphragm industry will exhibit the following characteristics in 2024:
(1)Multiple expansion projects have slowed down, and the industry’s capacity utilization rateremains at 60-65%.The newly added capacity is mainly concentrated in new enterprises, andwith the addition of debugging and verification cycles, it is expected to increase the effectiveannual capacity within 5 billion square meters;
(2) The price war continues,and compared to the end of 2023, the decrease in dry processmembranes will exceed 20% in 2024, and the decrease in wet process membranes will exceed15%;
(3)Extreme cost reduction is driving the acceleration of raw material localization.The localizationof wet process raw material PE is expected to exceed 25%,and dry process raw material PP isexpected to exceed 70%.
lt is expected that the electrolyte industry will exhibit the following trends in 2024:
(1) The price reduction of electrolytes and upstream raw materials is limited, and compared to theend of 2023, the price reduction of electrolytes will be within 8%;
(2) Driven by fast charging technology, the year-on-year growth rate of LlFSl market shipments isexpected to exceed 100%;
(3)Excess production capacity of lithium hexafluarophosphate has led to a decrease in industrycapacity utilization, and some small and medium-sized enterprises have stopped production.