Explosion of Battery Demand Causes Tigh Supply of Raw Materials and Drives Up Costs

CAAM data shows that in August, NEV sales reached 1.643 million units, up 17.8% YoY and 5.3% MoM, with a penetration rate of approximately 60.6%. Domestic sales totaled 1.118 million units, up 10.9% MoM but down 4.6% YoY, while exports reached 526,000 units, down 5% MoM but up 1.3x YoY. Domestic passenger NEV sales were 1.015 million units, up 10.8% MoM but down 8.2% YoY, and domestic commercial NEV sales were 103,000 units, up 11.9% MoM and 56.6% YoY. From January to August, domestic NEV sales totaled 7.215 million units, down 10.8% YoY. Domestic passenger NEV sales were 6.525 million units, down 14.2% YoY, while domestic commercial NEV sales were 690,000 units, up 43.4% YoY. From January to August, NEV exports totaled 3.435 million units, up 1.2x YoY. Passenger NEV exports were 3.357 million units, up 1.3x YoY, while commercial NEV exports were 78,000 units, up 33.1% YoY.

Recently, Shanxi Xiang'an Energy Technology Co., Ltd. published the environmental impact assessment draft for public comment for its annual production of 30,000 mt of sodium-ion battery materials project. The project is located in the Fuyang Industrial Park, Xiangyuan Economic and Technological Development Zone, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province. The main part of the project and associated utilities include the construction of two production lines for sodium-ion battery cathode materials and one production line for anode materials, along with supporting pure water preparation, air compression systems, nitrogen generation systems, dehumidification systems, and cooling water circulation systems. The processes adopted include: pretreatment (mixing + sand milling + iron removal + spray drying), sagger loading, vibration leveling, grid insertion + sintering, and final treatment (jet milling + batch mixing + sieving + packaging). Once operational, the project will produce 25,000 mt of sodium-ion battery cathode materials and 5,000 mt of anode materials annually. The total investment of the project is 534 million yuan, with an environmental protection investment of 3.64 million yuan, accounting for 0.68%.

Equipment companies such as Liyuanheng, Lead Intelligent, and ST Funeng disclosed solid-state battery equipment progress in quick succession: Liyuanheng’s all-solid-state full-line project completed phased acceptance, and its warm isostatic pressing equipment reached mass-production delivery standards; Lead Intelligent continued to win orders from leading customers in Q3 and delivered multiple production lines in parallel; ST Funeng’s subsidiary Chaoye Precision achieved small-batch delivery.