[2020.05.11 Summary of Internal Morning meeting of Cobalt and Lithium New Energy] domestic power demand recovers slowly or increases industrial carbon production

SMM, 11 May:

Battery end Market:

In the power market, production of new energy vehicles was 73000 in April, down 31.4% from a year earlier and up 40.8% from a month earlier, according to the SMM new energy database. Among them, the output of new energy passenger vehicles is 65000, accounting for 89.5%, the output of new energy buses is 2800, accounting for 3.9%, and the output of new energy special vehicles is 4800, accounting for 6.6%. Tesla production grew gradually in April and is nearing full production, while BYD production fell slightly from March and is now in second place. In addition, a number of car companies in April production increased month-on-month, such as Weimar, Weilai, Chery, ideal and other new power car companies, joint ventures FAW Volkswagen, brilliance BMW. However, BAIC's new energy production and sales fell significantly in April compared with the previous month, which was also caused by its own car and battery quality problems in addition to the fierce market competition.

The number of power batteries installed in April was 3.6 GWH, down 33.3% from a year earlier and up 30.3% from the previous month. Among them, the installed capacity of ternary battery is 2.6GWhT, accounting for 73.2%, and that of lithium iron phosphate battery is 0.9GWha, accounting for 25.8%. In April, the proportion of iron-lithium installed capacity increased, and the output of special purpose vehicles and the proportion of iron-lithium supporting increased.

Upstream raw material prices:

Cobalt: the departure of cobalt raw materials from South Africa may affect the start-up adjustment of some smelters. At present, a small amount of cobalt sulfate transaction, the price is strong, and there is an upward trend, but the downstream acceptance is not high; cobalt chloride, cobalt oxide orders sporadic, price stalemate, this week may have new orders to close.

Lithium: the domestic lithium salt demand weak supply increases, the lithium carbonate transaction price continues to decline, the current battery grade lithium carbonate market has appeared about 42000 yuan / ton quotation, some purification enterprise quotation is slightly lower than this price; industrial grade lithium carbonate market has appeared 33000 yuan / ton quotation. Considering that the downstream application of electric carbon is mainly the current dismal demand of the ternary power market, in order to ship, some large plants plan to gradually shift to the production of industrial grade lithium carbonate (or quasi-battery grade lithium carbonate).

Cathode materials and precursors: ternary materials and precursors, due to post-node downstream demand is not up, downstream customer inquiry is too much, trading volume sporadic, upstream raw material prices are maintained, ternary prices are still low. Most of the end customers of lithium manganate enterprises rely on overseas markets, especially the Indian market. Affected by the epidemic, exports are difficult to recover in the short term. In addition, the price of lithium manganate has fallen slightly upstream, and the price of lithium manganate is under serious pressure.

Nickel: affected by the strong price of electrolytic nickel, the current market price of nickel sulfate also remains high. As the current market prices of ternary materials and precursors are still on the low side, demanders continue to depress prices but have little effect. As a result of the recent downstream market has completed the procurement of raw materials, producers high prices, nickel sulfate prices will remain stable in the short term.

News:

1. [Zhejiang Wanyou Power was filed for bankruptcy liquidation] on May 9, the people's Court of South Taihu New District, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province issued a notice on accepting the bankruptcy liquidation of Zhejiang Baoyou Power system Co., Ltd. According to the announcement, according to the application of the creditor Huzhou Jinyuan Construction Engineering Co., Ltd., it was ruled on April 13, 2020 to accept the bankruptcy liquidation case of the debtor Zhejiang Hongyou Power system Co., Ltd., the creditor should declare his claims to the manager of Zhejiang Anyou Power system Co., Ltd before August 7, 2020. Fanyou Power was established in November 2016. at present, there are two major battery production bases in Huzhou and Zhaoqing, with a capacity of 5GWhH in 2019 and is expected to reach 8GWh in 2020.

According to reports, Yabao revealed last Thursday that it was considering a possible acquisition of all or part of Tianqi's cobalt stake in the Greenbush (Greeenbushes) mine in Western Australia, which has the world's largest reserves of lithium hard salt. According to the first quarter, Kent Masters, head of lithium mining at Yabo, said the company was interested in Tianqi Lithium's stake in Green Bush. Masters added that Yabo, one of the world's most important battery makers, will make decisions on a case-by-case basis.

3. [BYD New Energy monthly sales of 12995 vehicles] according to statistics, BYD sold a total of 12995 new energy vehicles in April this year, down 45.9 percent from the same period last year. Between January and April 2020, BYD sold 35187 new energy vehicles, down 63.79 per cent from a year earlier.

SMM Battery Materials Research team

Lin Fangwen 021-51666678

Qin Jingjing 021 Murray 51666828

Mei Wang Qin 021 Mui 51666759

Huo Yuan 021-51666898

Wu Yang 021 51666818