Lithium battery manufacturers analyze the ternary lithium battery materials and cobalt price market prices of cathode materials. At present, lithium battery cathode materials to lithium cobaltate, lithium manganate, lithium iron phosphate, ternary cathode materials. Ternary cathode materials are cheaper than cobalt cathode, several cathode materials with their own advantages, respectively, in the lithium battery market occupy a certain share. The following lithium battery manufacturers analyze the ternary lithium battery materials and cobalt cathode materials market prices.
Lithium battery manufacturers analyze the market price of ternary lithium battery materials and cobalt price of cathode materials
Anode materials in 2018, the national total output of cathode materials 270,000 tons, an increase of 28% year-on-year. For ternary materials, driven by the demand for high energy density batteries in the new energy passenger car and special vehicle markets, the total output exceeded 120,000 tons, up 39% year-on-year; cobalt output was impacted by domestic high nickel materials, and the annual output saw a small decline year-on-year, down 2%.
Ternary lithium battery material market price
Anode material is the most critical raw material for ternary lithium batteries, accounting for more than 30% of the cost of lithium batteries, the largest proportion. The cathode material directly determines the performance index of lithium battery, such as energy density performance, specific power, temperature range and safety performance, etc.
SMM ternary material price is 142,000-148,000 yuan/ton, the average price is down 0.5 million yuan/ton compared with last week. SMM ternary material price is 16-165,000 yuan/ton, the average price is down 0.3 million yuan/ton compared with last week.
Ternary lithium battery materials combine the advantages of cobalt, nickel and manganese cathode materials, both high energy density, long cycle life, better safety, relatively low cost and other characteristics. Data show that in 2018, China's lithium ternary cathode material market size reached 26.3 billion yuan, up 52.9% year-on-year; shipments of 136,800 tons, up 57% year-on-year.
The main reasons for the continued significant growth of ternary material shipments and market scale in 2018 are.
(1) China's new energy passenger car production in 2018 was 1.075 million units, an increase of 82.65% year-on-year. Passenger cars drove 33.09 GWh of new power battery installed capacity, of which the application ratio of ternary batteries in passenger cars reached 83%, an increase of 7 percentage points compared with 2017, which directly drove up the demand for ternary cathode materials.
(2) Due to the high cost of cobalt resources, unstable supply, and cobalt prices have been at a high level in the first half of 2017-2018, resulting in the cost of lithium cobalt acid batteries rose by more than 30%, some digital battery enterprises to reduce costs, in the low-end digital field to increase the ternary materials to replace lithium cobaltate, or use ternary cobalt doping and other ways to reduce the amount of cobalt;.
(3) Electric two-wheelers are affected by the new national standard and the price increase of lead-acid batteries, etc., and the application ratio of ternary lithium batteries is increased.
Market price of cobalt cathode material
Cobalt cathode material is affected by the cost and mainly used in 3C and other small battery fields. Cobalt has stable performance and is most maturely used in cell phones and other technologies, but the biggest drawback of the application is the high cost, and cobalt is a relatively scarce strategic metal.
The downstream demand for cobalt is mainly for the cathode material of ternary batteries in new energy vehicles, and the cost of cobalt in the cathode material accounts for 40%. At present, cobalt is irreplaceable in ternary materials, and the value of lithium is much less than that of cobalt in the application of cathode materials. the use of cobalt in electric vehicles was about 1,300 tons in 2014, and the total amount increased to 11,320 tons in 2017, which is expected to increase to 62,940 tons by 2025.
With the vigorous development of global new energy vehicles, the contradiction between supply and demand of cobalt has become prominent, and as of early 2018, the global spot cobalt price has risen to US$81,548/ton, up 145% from US$33,280/ton in early 2017, and the LME futures cobalt price has also risen to US$75,205/ton, up 131.52%. Under the premise that the general direction of the development of new energy vehicles remains unchanged, the growth rate of global demand for cobalt will be faster than the growth rate of supply, and before the technological breakthrough and large-scale application of high nickel ternary materials, cobalt prices are highly elastic to rise.
The above is the market price of ternary lithium battery materials and cobalt price of cathode materials. Market participants are generally pessimistic about post-market expectations, and spot quotations continue to decline, and cobalt prices are expected to remain under considerable downward pressure in the short term. With the weak demand for downstream new energy vehicles, a large number of production cuts for ternary lithium battery materials, weakening the demand for lithium salt market, and intensifying competition pressure from domestic and foreign smelters, there is still downward pressure on the price in the market afterwards.
If you have any demands in batteries, please feel free to contact info@manlybattery.com
