Starting from 2022, the market demand for energy storage products has increased greatly due to energy shortages and soaring electricity prices in many countries around the world. Due to high charging and discharging efficiency and good stability, lithium batteries are internationally regarded as the first choice for modern energy storage devices. In the new development stage, it is an important task for all colleagues in the copper foil industry to move steadily forward and further promote product transformation and upgrading to meet the new market demand and achieve high-quality development. It is not difficult to find that today's lithium battery market is quite prosperous, the demand for power storage is growing rapidly, the trend of battery thinning is common, and the thin copper foil lithium battery products have become our country's export "explosive products".
Lithium copper foil is the abbreviation for lithium-ion battery copper foil, which is used as a material for the anode collector of lithium-ion batteries and belongs to the important category of electrolytic copper foil. It is a kind of metallic copper foil produced by electrolytic method with surface treatment, and is the most common classification of thick lithium battery copper foil. Li-ion battery copper foil can be classified by thickness into thin copper foil (12-18 microns), ultra-thin copper foil (6-12 microns) and ultra-thin copper foil (6 microns and below). Due to the high energy density requirements of new energy vehicles, power batteries tend to use ultra-thin and very thin copper foil with thin thickness.
Especially for power lithium batteries with high energy density requirements, lithium copper foil has become one of the breakthroughs. Under the premise that other systems remain unchanged, the thinner and lighter the copper foil used in lithium batteries, the higher the mass energy density. As a midstream lithium copper foil in the industry chain, the development of the industry is influenced by the upstream raw materials and downstream lithium batteries. Upstream raw materials such as copper and sulfuric acid are bulk commodities with sufficient supply but frequent price fluctuations; downstream lithium batteries are influenced by the development of new energy vehicles and energy storage. In the future, new energy vehicles benefit from the national carbon neutral strategy, and the popularity rate is expected to continue to increase significantly, and the demand for power lithium-ion batteries will grow rapidly. China's chemical energy storage is developing rapidly, and with the development of wind power, photovoltaic and other industries, China's electrochemical energy storage will grow rapidly. The cumulative compound growth rate of installed electrochemical energy storage capacity is expected to be 57.4% from 2021-2025.
With the joint efforts of battery companies and copper foil manufacturers, China's lithium battery copper foil is at the forefront of the world in terms of lightness and thinness. At present, the copper foil for domestic lithium batteries is mainly 6 microns and 8 microns. In order to improve the energy density of the battery, in addition to thickness, tensile strength, elongation, heat resistance and corrosion resistance are also important technical indicators. 6 microns and thinner copper foil has become the focus of the layout of the domestic mainstream manufacturers, and at present, 4 microns, 4.5 microns and other thinner products have been applied in the head enterprises such as Ningde Time and China Innovation Aviation.
The actual output is difficult to reach the nominal capacity, and the overall capacity utilization rate of the lithium copper foil industry is about 80%, taking into account the invalid capacity that cannot be mass produced. 6 micron copper foil or below enjoys higher bargaining power and higher profitability due to the difficulty of production. Considering the pricing model of copper price + processing fee for lithium copper foil, the processing fee of 6 micron copper foil is 5.2 million yuan/ton (including tax), which is about 47% higher than the processing fee of 8 micron copper foil.
Benefiting from the rapid development of China's new energy vehicles and lithium battery industry, China is a global leader in the development of lithium copper foil, covering thin copper foil, ultra-thin copper foil and very thin copper foil. China has become the world's largest producer of lithium copper foil. According to CCFA, China's lithium copper foil production capacity will be 229,000 tons in 2020, and we estimate that China's market share in global lithium copper foil production capacity will be about 65%.
Nordic share: lithium copper foil leader restarted growth, mainly engaged in the development, production and sales of electrolytic copper foil for lithium-ion batteries, the main electrolytic copper foil products include 4-6 micron extremely thin lithium copper foil, 8-10 micron ultra-thin lithium copper foil, 9-70 micron high-performance electronic circuit copper foil, 105-500 micron ultra-thick electrolytic copper foil, etc., in the domestic first to achieve 4.5 micron and 4 micron extremely thin lithium copper foil in mass production.
Jiayuan Technology: Deeply engaged in lithium copper foil, future production capacity continues to grow, mainly engaged in the production and sales of various types of high-performance electrolytic copper foil for lithium-ion batteries from 4.5 to 12μm, mainly used in lithium-ion batteries, but also a small number of applications in PCB. The company has established long-term relationships with major domestic lithium-ion battery manufacturers and become the core supplier of their lithium copper foil. The company is deeply engaged in lithium copper foil and has been leading in product research and development, and now has supplied 4.5 micron extremely thin lithium copper foil to customers in batch.
According to the major companies' copper foil projects and the progress of their production capacity, the pattern of tight supply of copper foil may continue in 2022 under the faster growth of demand, and the processing fee of lithium copper foil is expected to maintain a high level. 2023 will see a significant improvement on the supply side, and the industry will gradually rebalance.
Post time: Oct-18-2022