Driven by the strong demand in the power battery market, the new round of expansion of international material giants has quietly accelerated.
Recently, Youmeike, the world's largest manufacturer of cathode materials for lithium batteries, started the cathode material project in Jiangmen, with an annual output of 200,000 tons of cathode materials for lithium batteries, required precursors and supporting nickel and cobalt. It is expected to be put into production in the first half of 20 19. The project plans to build a world-class production base of lithium battery materials for new energy vehicles.
It is understood that Youmeike has long been optimistic about the prospects of China's new energy automobile industry, and it is also a long-term preparation to invest in the layout of cathode materials in China. The investment of Jiangmen project is about 2.6 billion yuan, and the planned investment line covers NCM11,523, 622, 8 1 1 systems, mainly targeting the domestic high-end power battery market.
In fact, with the support of policies and markets, domestic power batteries have continued to grow this year. With the increasing demand for energy density and performance of power batteries, the high-end cathode material market has also ushered in a broad development opportunity, which is currently regarded by international material giants as the best opportunity to speed up the layout.
Coincidentally, BASF, another international giant, is also gearing up. Not long ago, BASF announced that the production capacity of high-nickel cathode active materials in Onota, Japan, which was jointly built by BASF Toda Battery Materials Co., Ltd. (BTBM) and Japan Toda * * * *, will be increased by three times.
According to the interpretation of the industry, BASF set its production base in Asia in Japan, based on the consideration of cooperation with Toda. But its ultimate target market, like Youmic, is China, the largest new energy vehicle market in the world.
It is worth mentioning that Zhuang Xinfeng Pill, who is also an international chemical giant, is not weak at all, and the new energy power business layout with lithium battery cathode material as the core is launched globally. 2065438+In September 2007, the Financial Times reported that Zhuangxinfeng Pill would spend1800 million yuan to develop and mass-produce high-nickel cathode materials (reinforced lithium niobate) for lithium batteries.
As we know, at present, some domestic material enterprises are comparable to the international ones in terms of material technology, performance and quality, and many of them are international and have superior prices, but they are in R&: D precipitation and later stable control of batch quality are still weak. It can be predicted that the overweight expansion of international material giants will have a certain impact on the domestic high-end cathode material market.
It is generally believed in the industry that the domestic new energy vehicle market is still guided by policy subsidies, and the demand for high-end, high-energy density cathode materials may erupt around 2020. After the subsidy is cancelled, the real core competitiveness of material enterprises will be highlighted.
Therefore, we sorted out the layout of cathode materials of the above three international material giants, and got a glimpse of their market strategies and layout strategies in order to bring benefits to the industry.
Youmeike: Looking for the best way to meet the demand of power battery materials.
As the world's largest manufacturer of cathode materials for lithium batteries, Youmeike has a global market share of more than a quarter. In the field of domestic cathode materials, the development and growth of Meimeike can be described as steady and steady.
Regarding the marketing strategy of cathode materials, Youmeike's thinking in China market is to focus on medium nickel materials with the best cost performance in the short term. Based on the technical feasibility, cost advantage and the possibility of mass production, it is considered that medium nickel material is the best way out for economical electric vehicles at present. But in the long run, high nickel materials will be the direction.
According to the previous public information, Youmeike believes that from the current technology, the material cost of 8 1 1/NCA is still very high, and it will take time and market test whether the high price after electric vehicle subsidy can be recognized by the market. In its view, medium and high nickel products should adapt to different application platforms and different voltages, instead of all products blindly pursuing high nickel.
Under the background of national policy favoring high energy density batteries, there is no doubt about the development trend of high nickel cathode materials. It is understood that Youmeike has always had technical reserves and mass production preparations for 8 1 1 products. Once the market demand is formed, the company can provide products at any time.
With a stable product supply and a gameplay that caters to the market demand, Ke Mei has won the favor of the first and second echelon battery factories in China.
As a matter of fact, the overweight layout of Youmeike cathode material project in Jiangmen also represents the determination of Youmeike Group to actively participate in the construction of China's booming new energy automobile industry, as well as its long-term promising prospects for China's new energy automobile industry.
BASF: Expanding Patent Cooperation with High Nickel Production Capacity
As a global chemical giant, BASF's recent series of expansion actions have also attracted infinite associations in the industry.
20 17 12, BASF announced that it would cooperate with BASF haneda battery materials co., ltd. (BTBM) established in haneda, Japan, to increase the production capacity of high-nickel cathode active materials in Onota, Japan by two times.
The interpretation in the industry is that BASF wants to build a complete battery material product line with the help of Dongda Industrial's production capacity and customer resources in the field of cathode materials, and then use its existing global automobile industry chain sales network to become the world's leading supplier of functional materials and components for single batteries/battery packs.
BASF's Asian production base in Japan is mainly based on the consideration of cooperation with Toda, but in the final target market, it must aim at China, the world's largest new energy vehicle market.
In fact, as early as 20 15, BASF moved its global battery materials department headquarters from the United States to Shanghai, and started the second phase of its Asia-Pacific Innovation Park. This means that BASF has greatly expanded its research and development; D in the Asia-Pacific region; D scale brings innovation closer to customers in this region through a series of new measures, and also shows its emphasis on the China market.
Besides expanding production capacity, the cooperation between BASF and China cathode materials enterprises is also accelerating. Last month, BASF granted Peking University the first patent sub-license related to nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) cathode materials at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL).
The insiders believe that patent licensing is the beginning of cooperation between BASF and domestic material enterprises. With the further development of the domestic new energy vehicle market, the cooperation between the two parties will be further extended, and BASF's domestic lithium battery business will undoubtedly continue to increase.
Zhuang Feng: Entering the field of high-energy nickel-based cathode materials
At the end of September, 2065438+07, the Financial Times reported that Zhuang Xinfeng Pill, which is mainly engaged in the catalyst business of gasoline and diesel vehicles, will spend 200 million pounds (about/kloc-0.8 billion RMB) to develop battery materials.
Zhuang said that the reason for increasing the layout is to be optimistic about the market opportunities of battery materials in the future. It is estimated that when the global electric vehicle market penetration rate reaches 10%, the battery material market scale will reach 30 billion US dollars.
In fact, due to the transfer of diesel in Europe and the penetration of electric vehicles, Zhuang Xinfeng Pill has predicted that the sales of its catalyst business will slow down in the next few years. This is also one of the reasons why Zhuang Xinfeng Pill turned to cathode material.
In terms of product strategy, the company's largest cathode material business is lithium ferrous phosphate. At present, the main product is a high-energy nickel-based cathode material-enhanced lithium nickelate (eLNO). It is said that the energy density exceeds all the ternary systems at present. At present, the new cathode material enhanced lithium nickelate (eLNO) has entered the pilot stage.
Zhuangfeng invested heavily this time, and plans to produce 10000mt enhanced lithium nickel oxide (eLNO), which is expected to be used in electric vehicles in 20021-2022.
Zhuang Feng believes that lithium ferrous phosphate materials have broad market space in the fields of start-stop batteries, bus logistics vehicles and so on; In the passenger car market, ternary and reinforced lithium nickelate (eLNO) materials dominate; As for the active materials with higher specific capacity, such as high-pressure spinel, it can't be used on a large scale due to technical conditions. However, with technological breakthroughs, they will be used in the field of passenger cars in the future.
Million car purchase subsidy