SHANGHAI, Jul 26 (SMM) - The lithium battery industry is booming in 2021. The new energy industry is rising rapidly under the background of stimulus policies and the global electrification trend, driving the entire industry chain into a stage of vigorous development.

As one of the most important basic raw materials for new energy vehicles, lithium resources saw short supply and price increase at the end of 2020 and stable prices amid recovering supply in Q2 2021. The supply of lithium resources has become an important influencing factor for the future development of new energy. How will the customer base in the industry chain, including downstream precursors, materials, batteries, automobiles, and upstream nickel, cobalt and lithium raw material manufacturers, balance the increase in production and the supply of raw materials? SMM has integrated the upstream and downstream enterprises in the lithium battery industry chain and conducted on-site surveys on lithium battery related companies.  

SMM and the delegation group that is made up of lithium battery downstream companies have just come back from the investigation trip to Hunan which is already very productive. Next, the delegation group will head to Qinghai to visit industry veterans and conduct on-site surveys on the production of Chinese lithium battery industry raw material enterprises, and seek in-depth cooperation and create more effective communication.

From July 19 to 23, SMM New Energy Division Director Wang Tian and marketing consultant Yu Lei led the SMM staff and members of the delegation to visit raw material enterprises of lithium battery industry in Qinghai, in order to seek more in-depth cooperation.

About Qinghai Salt Lake Lanke Lithium Co. Ltd.

SMM and the delegation visited the Qinghai Salt Lake Lanke Lithium Co., Ltd. (“Lanke Lithium”) controlled by Salt Lake Shareholding Company, and were warmly welcomed by the management from the company including Deputy Director XING Hong from the controlling company and Deputy General Manager ZHANG Chengsheng from Lanke Lithium. Before the site visit, Lanke Lithium gave a general introduction to the company’s overall businesses.

Lanke Lithium was established on March 22, 2007 with a registered capital of RMB 343.3 million under the supervision of Qinghai Market Supervision & Administration Bureau. Currently, the company’s registered capital has increased to RMB 517.9 million through shareholding reorganization and share expansion, and finished business license update on May 11 this year and extended its business period to infinite. Lanke Lithium is now a subsidy of the state-owned company Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co., Ltd., covering the production of lithium carbonate as well as the research, development, production and consultancy of lithium oxide, lithium hydroxide, lithium metal, lithium magnesium alloy, etc.

In the past decade, the company has received great support from national and local government, but experienced difficulties and hardships as well. In the future, it will focus on high quality development by leveraging resources strengths to make contributions to the construction of a world-level salt lake industry basis through innovation-driven strategies.

Factory Tour

Later, SMM and the delegation went to the company’s factory to better understand their production process and capacity deployment of lithium metal and lithium carbonate, etc.

Salt Lake Shareholding Company is located in Qarham Salt Lake region, covering an area of 5856 sq.km. The place also contains over 60 billion mt of resources of all kinds, including KCl (540 million mt), magnesium chloride (4 billion mt), lithium chloride (12 million mt), sodium chloride (55.5 billion mt) which all rank first in China. In other words, Qarham Salt Lake possesses great economic potential. More importantly, Lanke Lithium has initiated a transition to strategically emerging industry of lithium extraction new energy, further creating development spaces for Salt Lake.

At present, the company is equipped with superior lithium carbonate production installation at 10000 mt/year capacity; a battery-grade lithium carbonate project at 20000 mt/year capacity, which is under construction and commissioning. As an emerging star in China lithium industry, Lanke Lithium has applied for over 60 patents and secured 17, demonstrating significant advantages in terms of resources, technology & processes, R&D capabilities.

During the "14th Five-Year Plan", Lanke Lithium will actively respond to the national call to vigorously develop new energy industry. Based on the lithium product market demand and the lithium resources of Salt Lake, the company will vigorously promote the comprehensive upgrade of new energy industry and actively build new energy industry demonstration projects relying on the existing technology base. The purpose is to create 10,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent lithium industry cluster, and create a green lithium industry base of Salt Lake Shareholding Company with national influence. 

Technology Exchange

SMM and the delegation also exchanged in-depth ideas and opinions about Lanke Lithium’s core competitiveness and future development strategy.

When asked "will the low temperature in winter affect the output", Lanke Lithium replied that the low temperature does affect part of the production, but when designing the capacity, the company has taken into account this part, so it will not affect the annual supply.

In response to "is the company's adsorbent self-produced or procured from other suppliers", Lanke Lithium replied that the company's adsorbent has always been self-produced.

For the last question of “how to dispose the tailing solution after one-time adsorption", Lanke Lithium said that the tailing solution will be discharged from the brine drainage to the mine soluble ore.

The Group Photo

At the end of the tour visit, the delegation group and Jin Kunlun Lithium took a group photo as the visit has brought deeper cooperation and friendship and on the basis of which, there will be deeper exchanges and cooperation in the future.

Through this visit, SMM and the delegation group have gained a deeper understanding of the products, technologies, and company development of Jin Kunlun Lithium, as well as the market status, development trends, and problems of the lithium industry. SMM will continue to deepen cooperation with major companies to achieve complementary advantages and jointly promote the development of China’s lithium industry.

Special thanks to: Jiangxi Longente Environmental Protection Equipment Co., Ltd., Binteer Control Equipment Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Shangtuo Environmental Technology Co., Ltd., Xiangtan Huibo Centrifuge Co., Ltd., and Zhejiang Dongou Filter Manufacturing Co., Ltd.