The demand for high-end production capacity of lithium electrode is exuberant and silicon-carbon materials must compete for high ground.

SMM News: for a long time, as an important material for power batteries of new energy vehicles, lithium battery anode materials have been strongly supported by national science and technology policies and industrial policies. With the rapid development of new energy vehicles around the world, it will play a more obvious role in promoting the development of lithium battery industry chain, and lithium battery anode materials will usher in a broader space for development.

Lack of high-end production capacity

Driven by the growth of the terminal market for power batteries of new energy vehicles, shipments of negative materials in China reached 265000 tons in 2019, an increase of 38 percent over the same period last year, according to the data. By the end of 2019, the production capacity of domestic anode material enterprises reached 579800 tons, an increase of more than 31% over the same period last year. Since 2020, the supply of domestic negative material products has continued the trend of rapid growth, and the trend of capacity expansion is obvious.

On September 22, the project with an annual output of 50,000 tons of anode materials in Baoqian, Hubei Province officially started, with a total investment of 600 million yuan, and is scheduled to be put into production in June 2021. In the first phase, two production lines of 10,000 tons / year anode materials will be built. After the completion of the construction of all the projects, the total annual production capacity of 50,000 tons of anode materials will be formed.

Before that, on September 17, Xiang Fenghua was officially listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Xiang Fenghua plans to raise funds after deducting the issuance costs, all will be used for the construction of 30,000 tons of high-end graphite anode material production base project. It is understood that the production capacity of Xiang Fenghua will be about 20,000 tons at the end of 2019 and is expected to be about 30,000 tons in 2020. In the future, with the production capacity of 30,000 tons of fund-raising projects, Xiang Fenghua will form a production and marketing scale of more than 60,000 tons.

In addition, on August 24th, Cunninghamia lanceolata shares adjusted to raise funds to invest in the construction of an annual output of 100000 tons of lithium-ion battery anode materials. On July 9, Pu Tai Lai plans to raise 4.592 billion yuan to build projects such as annual production of 50, 000 tons of lithium-ion anode materials and graphitization of 50, 000 tons of lithium-ion battery anode materials. On July 2, Zhongke Xingcheng built a trial production line of 10,000 tons / year graphitized negative materials in Guizhou, and the company expects to form a production capacity of 40,000-50,000 tons of negative materials by the end of 2020. On June 16, Bertre's application for listing of the selected layer was successfully approved; the company plans to raise 2 billion yuan for projects such as the annual output of 40, 000 tons of lithium anode materials in Huizhou. On April 27, the production line of lithium battery anode material with an annual output of 40,000 tons was completed and put into production by Tianquan Fusan Company, a subsidiary of Fusan Group.

Judging from the current market pattern, the concentration of the domestic negative material industry is relatively high, and the more powerful ones are the "three big and five small". The three major companies respectively refer to Bertre, Putailai (Jiangxi Zichen) and Cunninghamia lanceolata; the five small ones respectively refer to Kaijin Energy, Zhengtuo Energy, Shenzhen Snow, Zhongke Star City, and Xiang Fenghua.

Among them, Betteri has ranked first in the world in terms of negative material shipments for seven consecutive years since 2013. Betteri is the first company in China to use natural graphite as an anode material, and it is also the first material company to export natural graphite abroad. Putailai shipped 46000 tons of negative materials in 2019, an increase of 54% over the same period last year, and accounted for 22% of the domestic artificial graphite market.

It is worth noting that although the domestic capacity expansion of negative materials is very strong, the overall capacity utilization is not high, structural surplus appears, and the production capacity of high-end products is still in short supply. Analysts pointed out that in the future, the competition pattern of the negative material market will focus on the competition among the leaders, the low-end production capacity will be gradually cleared, and enterprises with core technology and superior customer channels will gain more market share. market concentration will be further enhanced.

Acceleration of R & D and application of silicon-carbon materials

Under the background of continuous improvement in the performance, safety and stability of lithium batteries in downstream new energy vehicles, energy storage and other terminal applications, as well as cost reduction, anode material enterprises need to continue to develop new technologies, new processes and new products to meet the rapid iterative needs of downstream lithium-ion batteries for key materials.

At present, natural graphite and artificial graphite are the mainstream technical routes of anode materials, and silicon-based and other new anode materials are increasingly widely used. Technically speaking, the upgrading of graphite negative electrode system to silicon-based negative electrode system is an important direction. The specific capacity of silicon-carbon anode material can be several times higher than that of natural graphite electrode and artificial graphite electrode, and its application in lithium battery will greatly increase the upper limit of energy density.

It is understood that at present, many domestic material enterprises are actively arranging silicon-carbon anode materials. Beitri, Shanshan shares, Jiangxi Zichen, Shenzhen Snow, Zhongke Electric, Jiangxi Zhengtuo, Sibao Technology, Chuangya Power, Dalian Lichang and so on are actively promoting the industrialization of silicon-carbon anode.

"the product categories and varieties of Betteri anode materials are very complete, including natural graphite anode materials, artificial graphite anode materials that come from behind, and silicon anode materials that lead the trend in the forefront of (technological innovation)." He Xueqin, chairman of Bertre, said in an interview with the media. As one of the earliest enterprises to mass-produce silicon-based anode materials in China, the shipment volume of Beitre silicon-based anode materials is in the forefront of the industry in 2019.

It is reported that at present, Bertre's silicon-carbon anode material has broken through to the third generation products, and its specific capacity has increased from the first generation 650mAh/g to the third generation 1500m Ahmp g, and the fourth generation silicon-carbon anode material with higher capacity is being developed.

As a newcomer in the lithium anode material industry, Sibao technology aims at the high-end silicon-carbon anode materials in the industry from the very beginning. Sibao Technology said that in 2019, the company completed the pilot test and built a pilot production line of silicon-carbon anode materials with a capacity of 50 tons per year. at the same time, the company's "high specific capacity lithium ion battery silicon / carbon composite anode material" has passed the achievement appraisal organized by the Sichuan Provincial Department of economy and Information Technology, and the appraisal conclusion is the international advanced level.

According to Wang Youzhi, chairman of Sibao Technology, at present, the company has sent samples to a number of battery manufacturers for joint development, and will scale up production according to the progress of cooperation with manufacturers. In the future, Sibao Technology will continue to increase its investment in the research and development of silicon-carbon anode materials.

It is understood that Ningde era, BYD, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Lishen battery, micro-macro power and other battery manufacturers are speeding up the research and development and trial production of silicon-carbon negative electrode system. Data show that the domestic consumption of silicon-carbon composites has reached 2000-3000 tons in 2018, which is about double that of the same period last year. It is predicted that the domestic market space of silicon-carbon anode materials will reach 5 billion yuan in 2020.

Under the background of the rapid development of automobile electrification and the rapid growth of the demand for lithium anode materials in the global lithium battery industry, the market space of silicon-carbon anode is very huge in the future.