The use of cobalt in lithium batteries, lithium materials cobalt rose rapidly. The use of cobalt in lithium batteries is mainly used in lithium cobalt acid batteries, nickel-cobalt aluminum acid batteries, and cathode materials for ternary batteries. The application of cobalt in the downstream has surged in recent years, which is directly related to the rapid development of new energy vehicles. The following gives you an introduction to the use of cobalt in lithium batteries, lithium materials cobalt is rising rapidly.
Taking the power battery field, which has the largest cobalt consumption in China, as an example, although the prospect of new energy vehicles is very good, the consumption of cobalt continues to rise, and at present, the consumption of cobalt is still mainly in the 3C field. In the future, with the progress of technology, the cobalt required per 10 million hours in power batteries will gradually decline, so the growth rate of cobalt consumption may not be as fast as imagined.
The use of cobalt in lithium batteries
The main use of cobalt is for lithium batteries. One of the cores of lithium-ion batteries is the cathode material, in which lithium cobaltate is used. Lithium cobaltate is a solid electrolyte with characteristics such as high energy density and environmental safety. Lithium battery cathode materials The current mainstream battery cathode materials are lithium cobaltate, lithium manganate, lithium nickel manganate, lithium iron phosphate, ternary materials and so on.
The use of cobalt in lithium batteries is mainly used in lithium cobalt-acid batteries, nickel-cobalt-aluminum-acid batteries and ternary battery cathode materials. The role of cobalt is to stabilize the laminar structure of the material, and can improve the cycle and multiplier performance of the material, but too high a cobalt content will lead to lower actual capacity.
Cobalt for lithium materials is rising rapidly
The battery accounts for a large part of the cost of new energy vehicles, but cobalt accounts for a large part of the cost of batteries, and the price of cobalt will have an impact on the price of batteries and even new energy vehicles.
Benefiting from the gradual recovery of downstream new energy vehicle sales, and the limited increment of the supply side, the trend of tight supply and demand for lithium materials will not change. Specific sub-items: copper foil product prices also showed an upward trend, while the price change of lithium hydroxide is relatively small. More noteworthy is the limited new production capacity of cobalt products, the continued outbreak of demand for ternary cathode materials, as well as speculative factors and other drivers, overseas cobalt prices have risen by more than 100% since the beginning of the year, and cobalt salts such as tri-cobalt tetraoxide have increased by more than 60%.
With the development of new energy battery industry, global cobalt demand will grow at an average annual rate of 10% from 2017 to 2020, and the demand will reach 115,400 tons and 127,600 tons in 2017 and 2018, respectively. With the increasing sales of new energy vehicles, there may be a further gap in the supply of cobalt.The average price of cobalt metal quoted in the domestic main non-ferrous metal spot market in 2018 was 561,000 yuan/ton, up 1,000 yuan/ton compared with the previous trading day; the cobalt commodity index was 201.8, up 0.36 points compared with the previous trading day.
From the supply and demand level, the cobalt price increase was mainly driven by two factors.
First, the supply is tight, and cobalt ore is mostly accompanied by nickel and copper deposits, so resources are scarce. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of cobalt salt, but China's cobalt reserves account for only about 1.1% of the world, and China's cobalt raw materials are mainly imported from abroad.
Second, the demand is rising. Cobalt is one of the most important materials for lithium batteries, and China's lithium batteries have become the main consumption area of cobalt. With the rapid development of 3C and new energy automobile industry, the rising demand of lithium battery drives the demand of cobalt to increase year by year.
Nowadays, all countries have established the goal of developing new energy vehicles, especially electric vehicles, and the demand for cobalt is certainly very large. No matter what technical means are adopted, cobalt is certainly irreplaceable in the field of power batteries in a short period of time. With the opportunity of international cooperation, China will have an advantage in the field of raw materials for power batteries, and will have more advantages in cost control of new energy vehicles in the future.
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