LMFP: A Sector Full of Opportunities for High-Purity Manganese Sulphate

SHANGHAI, Oct 20 (SMM) - As the "heart" of NEV engines, NMC lithium battery and LFP battery have taken up the largest share in the battery industry. According to SMM statistics, China's power battery installed capacity totalled 193.7GWh for January to November in 2022, 110.5% higher than the comparable months in 2021. Specifically, installed capacity of NMC batteries rose 63.9% from the previous year to 77.2GWh, accounting for 39.8% of the total. Installed capacity of LFP batteries climbed 159.8% to 116.3GWh, accounting for 60.1% of the total.

However, it should be noted that lithium manganese iron phosphate materials (LMFP), an improved version of LFP and a good “companion” of NMC batteries, has become a new territory in the industrial chain where enterprises are scrambling to take a share. For example, a LMFP cathode material project with an annual capacity of 110,000 mt of Shenzhen Dynanonic has been put into production in September. CATL announced to promote M3P batteries in the market in 2023. Ronbay Technology planned to invest in the construction of LMFP production lines with over 10,000 mt capacity to meet the downstream demand. Guanghua Sci-Tech planned to investe 247 million yuan to construction the projects of LMFP and LFP cathode active materials.

Currently, there is still room of improvement for the preparation process of LMFP. Due to the instability in mass production and higher practical costs than theory, LMFP cathode materials are more often mixed with NMC (8-series), LMO and LCO cathode materials to lower the costs or improve performance.

As LMFP is under spotlight, the manganese sources also gain attentions. SMM survey shows that the production of one mt of LMFP entails about 0.25 mt of manganese metal, or, in other words, 0.75-0.8 mt of high-purity manganese sulphate in physical content. If LMFP could usher in plenty of great opportunities for production in 2023, then the demand for high-purity manganese sulphate will also be diversified.