At present, the production capacity of lithium battery dismantling and recycling of compliant enterprises certified by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is more than 1 million tons, while only about 200,000 tons of new energy vehicle lithium batteries were scrapped last year, and even if we count the lithium batteries scrapped in 3C products and other fields, there is still a lot of lithium battery recycling capacity in a vacant state." Recently, a power battery recycling business executives told reporters.
In recent years, the rapid expansion of the new energy vehicle market has given rise to a huge lithium battery recycling market, but the new production line in lithium battery recycling emerged at the same time, but faced with the dismal reality of "market without goods.
■ Insufficient scrap volume
By the end of July, domestic sales of new energy vehicles reached 1.478 million units, a twofold increase year-on-year. In the new energy vehicle market continues to heat up, the lithium battery dismantling and recycling market is also rapidly heating up. since August, Anxin Securities and other brokerage firms issued a research report on lithium battery recycling, "strong demand", "new growth momentum" and other words especially The words "strong demand" and "new driving force for growth" are of particular interest.
The 2021 semi-annual report of Tianqi, which is engaged in power battery recycling, shows that according to industry estimates, the power batteries of the earliest batch of new energy vehicles listed are already in the "retirement" period. It is expected that from this year, the number of new energy vehicles scrapped power batteries will show a year-on-year growth trend, and after 2025, the number of "retired" batteries will grow by more than a million each year.
Although the prospect is good, but at this stage the scrap volume of lithium batteries is relatively "dismal". China Automotive Technology Research Center data show that in 2020, China's accumulated retired power battery only 200,000 tons.
"Scrapped power batteries not only ternary batteries, including lithium iron phosphate batteries, lithium manganese acid batteries, etc., which are more popular only relatively high value ternary batteries. But in the 200,000 tons of the total, ternary batteries account for only 30%-40%, which translates into a volume of 50,000 or 60,000 tons, scattered throughout the country, difficult to collect uniformly." The executives told reporters, "In other words, this scrap volume is not enough to recycle the production line."
■ by informal channels "diversion"
"The current capacity is indeed much larger than the actual amount of scrap, we estimate that the amount of recycling according to the formal channel is only about one-tenth of the total amount of scrap, accounting for a small percentage, most of the capacity is vacant. If we simply look at the performance of enterprises in the lithium battery dismantling and recycling business, we will definitely lose money." A power battery industry analyst said.
Why exactly this situation? A number of industry insiders said in an interview with reporters, usually, the life of lithium batteries is generally about 8 years, lithium battery recycling market has not yet ushered in large-scale demand, the current lithium battery recycling market, the main source of end-of-life power battery is still the new energy vehicles before 2015, most of them are buses, cabs and other service vehicles, far from meeting the available capacity, vacant has become the majority of Lithium battery dismantling and recycling lines are the norm.
At the same time, the industry analysts pointed out that the current power battery will reach the end of its useful life, into the smelter for dismantling and recycling is not the first place for lithium batteries, "retired" lithium batteries mostly flow into the secondary use stage.
In fact, since 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Interim Measures for the Management of New Energy Vehicle Power Battery Recycling", car manufacturers that sell through formal channels have basically established a recycling mechanism of "users apply to 4S stores to turn in lithium batteries, which are then collected by 4S stores and returned to the car manufacturers". In this way, the lithium battery end-of-life recycling cycle is further lengthened.
In addition, it is worth noting that informal channels of battery recycling has also become a major reason for the "diversion" of lithium batteries. "At this stage, enterprises for lithium battery recycling business investment is often interest-driven market behavior, in addition to formal manufacturers, but also attracted a large number of informal channels of small traders, small workshops 'share'. And usually see the recycling market for used household appliances, informal channels of the store to give a higher recycling price, which also increases the difficulty of formal enterprises to recycle lithium batteries." The above executives told reporters.
■ Call for sound recycling channels
The executives suggested that a sound recycling channel for "retired" lithium batteries should be established as soon as possible, and do a good job of promoting information on recycling channels to users.
"The unqualified dismantling factory does not have the professional ability of lithium battery gradient utilization and decomposition, after the high price of the acquisition of the 'retired' lithium battery packaging after the second sale, not only erode the lithium battery sold by the regular channel, but also may produce safety hazards. Therefore, to establish a sound recycling channel for lithium batteries as soon as possible, enterprises should also strengthen the knowledge of electric vehicle users on lithium battery recycling, and take the initiative to guide lithium batteries into the formal recycling channels, not just 'wait and see'. Future lithium battery scrap scale will increase year by year, this work is very necessary." The executive said.
According to the China Automotive Technology Research Center predicted that in 2025, China needs to recycle the capacity of waste batteries will reach 137.4 million kilowatt hours, which translates into more than 1 million tons, more than five times in 2020.
