As an important raw material for lithium batteries, lithium resources are a strategic "energy metal", known as "white oil". As one of the most important lithium salts, lithium carbonate is widely used in high-tech and traditional industrial fields such as batteries, energy storage, materials, medicine, information industry and atomic industry. Lithium carbonate is an important material in the manufacture of lithium batteries, and in recent years, as the country has launched its clean energy policy, lithium carbonate has become more and more important, and the production of lithium carbonate in China is rising. Because of the national support for new energy, China's domestic market demand for lithium carbonate increased, imports increased, the domestic market demand for lithium carbonate is large, but the production is small, resulting in supply is not due to demand, causing the domestic lithium carbonate market prices rise. The rapid rise in the price of lithium carbonate is still mainly affected by the contradiction between supply and demand.
The current market demand for lithium carbonate industry in China is large, domestic lithium carbonate production and can not meet the demand, lithium resources and lithium carbonate imports are affected to a certain extent, in this context, the market price of domestic lithium carbonate skyrocketed. 2021 at the beginning of the year, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate is only about 70,000 yuan a ton; by the beginning of this year, the price of lithium carbonate rose to 300,000 yuan / ton. After entering 2022, the price of domestic lithium carbonate rose faster and faster, from 300,000 yuan / ton in January this year to 400,000 yuan / ton only took about 30 days, and from 400,000 yuan / ton to 500,000 yuan / ton is only about 20 days. As of March 24 this year, the average price of lithium carbonate in China has exceeded 500,000 yuan mark, the highest price reached 52.1 million yuan / ton. The surge in lithium carbonate prices has brought a large impact on the downstream industry chain. In the context of energy change, the new energy sector has been buzzing with activity. Electric vehicles, energy storage industry rapid outbreak, power, energy storage battery rapid expansion led to lithium carbonate and other materials demand blowout caused by price increases, industrial grade, battery grade lithium carbonate prices have been from the low point in 2020 40,000 yuan / ton over ten times, once climbed to 500,000 yuan / ton high point. The product is hard to find, the trend for lithium crowned the new code name of "white oil".
The head players in the lithium carbonate industry include Ganfeng Lithium and Tianqi Lithium. In terms of the operation of the lithium carbonate business, after 2018, Tianqi Lithium's lithium compounds and derivatives business revenue declined year by year. 2020, Tianqi Lithium's lithium compounds and derivatives business achieved revenue of RMB 1.757 billion. 2021, Tianqi Lithium's lithium carbonate business achieved revenue of RMB 1.487 billion in the first half of the year. Tianqi Lithium: Lithium Carbonate Business Development Plan After a series of corporate crises, the company has been affected in terms of business development, revenue scale and profitability. With the hot new energy vehicle industry in China, there is a strong demand for power batteries, which greatly shortens the recovery time of the enterprise. Currently, the formula plans for the company's business in the short and medium term. The short-term goal is mainly to promote the successful commissioning of the Suining Anju lithium carbonate project with an annual production capacity of 20,000 tonnes, while the medium-term goal is to enhance its own lithium chemical product capacity and lithium concentrate capacity.
The rapid development of the new energy industry under the "double carbon" target has greatly boosted the demand for lithium raw materials. China Association of Automobile Manufacturers data show that in 2021, the cumulative annual sales of new energy vehicles 3.251 million units, market penetration reached 13.4%, an increase of 1.6 times. Power battery installed capacity swelled with the popularity of new energy vehicles, following the mobile phone lithium battery has become the largest market in the lithium battery industry. In the future, as China's lithium resources exploration and development efforts to increase, lithium carbonate industry production capacity will gradually expand, capacity utilization rate will also gradually improve, while China's lithium technology research and development will continue to strengthen, China's lithium carbonate industry supply shortage will gradually be alleviated.
Post time: Sep-06-2022