[SMM Analysis] SK Innovation Global Lithium Power Strategic layout revealed

SMM, April 15 / PRNewswire-Asianet /-

Recently, foreign media reported that, SK Innovation is close to reaching an agreement to build a factory in China in talks with Volkswagen and Chinese partners to set up a battery joint venture. Who's SKI? What is the strategic layout for the development of lithium power industry? What impact and inspiration will it bring to the development of China's lithium power industry? SMM will reveal the global lithium power strategic layout of SKI from the direction of product development, capacity expansion route, upstream and downstream cooperation focus and so on.

SKI: layout Global Energy supply attaches great importance to Chinese Market

Founded in 1962, SK Innovation is the first refining company in South Korea, operating in a variety of areas, including exploration and production (E / P), batteries, information and electronic materials. It owns the first refining company in South Korea, SK Energy, Petrochemical Company, SK Global Chemical, Global Lubricating Oil Company, SK Lubricants, Refining and Chemical Company SK Incheon Petrochem and trader SK Trading International. SKI Lithium Power Division has been concerned about the Chinese market for a long time. As early as 2013, it established Beijing Electronic Control Aisikai Technology Co., Ltd., together with BAIC Group and Beijing Electronic holding Co., Ltd. The main production of pure electric vehicle core-power battery, with a total investment of 1 billion yuan, was the first Sino-foreign joint venture battery enterprise at that time. With the release of the new policy, the company failed to enter the list of Chinese battery companies, it was difficult to compete with its peers without government subsidies, and management had to stop plans to build power battery factories in China, and the project came to a standstill. Until being shortlisted for the "whitelist of the automotive power battery and hydrogen fuel cell industry" (first batch), released in May 2018, At the end of 2018, SKI announced the resumption of a joint venture battery plant with BAIC Group and Beijing Electronics holding Co., Ltd., in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province.

Products: high nickel ternary with silicon carbon negative as a breakthrough focus

In the field of lithium electricity, SKI is mainly used as soft package battery. At present, the cathode material of soft package battery is mainly NCM622, which should be developed into NCM811 mixed system in 2019, 100% NCM811 system in 2020, and the content of Ni is expected to reach 90% after 2021. The negative electrode material is currently graphite, and the silicon-carbon negative electrode is expected to be used after 2021. At present, the energy density of soft package cells of 64Ah specification produced by SKI in 2018 can reach 260 ng / kg, and the bulk energy density can reach 540Wh/L. In 2019, the cathode material system of SKI will be upgraded from NCM 622 to NCM 811-doped NCM 622 system, and the anode material will be upgraded from graphite to silicon-carbon negative electrode from 2021 to 2022. The energy density target is 284Whkg in 2020, 294Whkg in 2021, and is expected to reach 314Whkg in 2022. With the use of silicon-carbon negative electrode, the energy density will reach 319Wh/kg in 2023. In addition, SKI is the first and third company in South Korea to develop commercial battery separators, with patented low shrinkage and heat resistance (highheat-resistant) technologies for diaphragm manufacturing. The company's nine production lines in Zengping County are responsible for supplying 17% of the world's lithium battery diaphragm demand.

Production capacity: the rapid expansion of new production capacity of the nearest terminal car factories in Poland, China and the United States

SKI, which currently has a production capacity of just 4.7 GWhs, plans to reach 20 Gwhs by 2020 and 30Gwh when the US plant goes into production in 2022.

1) at the end of 2017, SKI spent 8000 trillion won (US $734 million) in Europe and Hungary to build a battery factory, which is expected to achieve mass production by 2020, with a total production capacity of 7 GWh for electric vehicles.

(2) at the end of August 2018, SKI restarted its cooperation project with Beijing Automobile and will invest RMB 5 billion to build a power battery factory with annual production of 7.5Gwh in Changzhou. The new plant is scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2019 and will officially start mass production in early 2020.

3) at the end of 2018, SKI decided to build a new power battery factory in the United States, which is expected to start operation in early 2019 and put into production in 2022, with a total investment of 1.14 trillion won (6.15 billion yuan). The target value of annual production at the initial stage of production is 9.8GWh. after additional investment in the later stage, the annual production capacity is expected to reach about 55GWh.

4) SKI also plans to expand its capacity at the Ruishan battery plant in South Korea to 5GWh.

5) in addition, SKI plans to invest about 400 billion won (RMB 2.44 billion) to build a new lithium-ion battery diaphragm and ceramic coating diaphragm production plant in Changzhou. The factory will set up 4 lithium ion battery diaphragm production lines and 3 ceramic coating diaphragm production lines. Construction began in 2019 to strive for mass production in the third quarter of 2020.

6) SKI has also invested 2.536 billion yuan in Poland to build a diaphragm factory with an annual production capacity of 470 million square meters, which is expected to be mass produced in the third quarter of 2021.

Upstream: highly concerned about lithium salt supply

SKI,EcoPro and Tianqi lithium recently signed a "long-term supply agreement", which stipulates that the total amount of basic sales of lithium hydroxide products in a single year accounts for about 20% to 25% of the annual capacity of TLK's lithium hydroxide construction project in Queenana, Australia. In addition, the three parties also signed a "memorandum of understanding" on the battery supply chain and related technology research and development and other matters agreed, which is valid for two years, the signing of the "memorandum of understanding" is an intentional document.

It is worth noting that Volkswagen, an important downstream of SKI, recently signed a Memorandum of understanding on Strategic Cooperation with Ganfeng Lithium Industry to establish a long-term strategic cooperative relationship. Ganfeng Lithium will provide Volkswagen with a safe supply of key lithium raw materials for its planned capacity and costs for electric vehicles. In addition, Volkswagen will work with Ganfeng Lithium on future issues such as battery recovery and solid-state batteries.

Downstream: deep cooperation with well-known car companies in the world

SKI is a power battery for Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Daimler, BAIC and many other well-known domestic and foreign car enterprises, and by the end of 2018, Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen Group) has announced that it has chosen SKI to supply batteries for its electric vehicles based on the modular electric kit (MEB) platform. Volkswagen Group brands (Audi, Siat, Porsche, Volkswagen and Skoda, as well as luxury brands Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini) plan to launch 50 new all-electric vehicle models on the road. By 2025, to have its own electric fleet, the group will need to exceed the annual battery capacity of the 150GWh by 2025. For Europe, Volkswagen has made LG Chemical, Samsung and SKI strategic suppliers. From 2019, these partners will ensure battery supply. From 2022, SKI will also meet the needs of the Group's North American market. China's strategic partner is CATL, which will supply batteries for the group's own electric vehicles starting in 2019.

SMM believes that with the increasingly fierce competition between China, Japan and South Korea, cost, performance and scale, the small advantages of any of the three dimensions will provide a strong boost to the fierce battle and make a huge return on the final division of market share.

SMM Cobalt Lithium Research team

Hu Yan 021 51666809

Hong Lu 021 51666814

Ning Ziwei 021 51666780

Qin Jingjing 021 51666828