The "mining" group adds another member of Sichuan Road and Bridge to Sichuan Energy Power and BYD Nuggets Lithium Iron Phosphate.

On December 30, 2021, Sichuan Shuneng Mineral Co., Ltd. was established with a registered capital of 500 million yuan, including mineral resources (non-coal mining) mining and mineral resources exploration. According to Leshan Daily, on the morning of December 31, 2021, the signing ceremony of Mabian Phosphate Mine and Lithium Iron Phosphate Industry Project was held in Leshan, Sichuan Shuneng Mineral Investment Co., Ltd. to promote the implementation of phosphate mining project, 50,000 tons / year lithium iron phosphate cathode material project, Lexi Expressway Mabian construction interconnection line change project and so on.

Data show that Sichuan Luqiao holds 67% of the shares, Chuaneng Power holds 20%, and BYD Co., Ltd. holds 1%. On the evening of October 20, 2021, Sichuan Luqiao announced that it planned to introduce Neng Investment Group and BYD as strategic investors through a non-public offering of shares. Sichuan Luqiao gained two "one" trading limits on October 21 and 22 in the following two trading days.

In recent years, the sales of new energy vehicles have continued to rise, and the new forces of car building and the major traditional car companies have actively opened up the market of new energy vehicles, which makes the price of power batteries as the "heart" of new energy vehicles go up. In this regard, many new energy companies began to directly layout the upstream end of lithium electricity and other raw materials, one after another to join the "ore-buying" group, in order to cope with the rising energy price war.

It has become a trend for automobile companies to "buy mines" with the increase of battery gap.

The skyrocketing sales of new energy vehicles in 2021 have led to a "triple jump" in the price of raw materials for power batteries. According to data, in late December 2021, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate reached 267000 yuan per ton, an average daily increase of about 4000 yuan. Throughout 2021, lithium carbonate has risen by more than 230%. On the other hand, the domestic average price of phosphoric acid needed to produce lithium iron phosphate batteries has risen to 10500 yuan per ton, an increase of 109 per cent compared with the beginning of 2021. In addition, the prices of raw materials for the production of power batteries such as nickel, cobalt and manganese also continue to rise.

Under this background, many car companies have joined the group of "buying mines" one after another. Tesla signed a nickel ore supply agreement with BHP Billiton Sustainable Energy Company in July 2021. It is reported that Western Nickel, owned by BHP Billiton, will provide Tesla with nickel ore as a raw material for battery manufacturing.

Domestic car companies also have early predictions. For example, Great Wall Motor announced in 2017 that Yixin Development Co., Ltd., an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, intends to acquire a stake of no more than 3.5 per cent of Pilbara Minerals with self-raised funds of 146 million yuan and obtain the right to underwrite some of the products of the Pilgangoora lithium mine project.

In addition, GAC is also in the upstream of the layout industry. In December 2021, GAC GROUP Capital, SAIC Shangyi Capital and Jiuling Lithium Industry formally signed a strategic investment agreement. GAC Capital will jointly invest in Jiuling Lithium Industry with SAIC Shangyi Capital, with a total investment of 300 million yuan.

Upstream and downstream enterprises have also joined the battle for raw materials for power batteries.

In addition to the entry of automobile enterprises, the battle for "mining" in the upper reaches of the industrial chain is also more intense, especially the competition for lithium ore is the most fierce.

Among them, the upstream lithium material enterprise Ganfeng lithium industry "hoarding" layout is the most active. In recent years, Ganfeng Lithium Industry has made many ore purchases, with four large-scale acquisitions in the first half of 2021 alone, and the cost of buying ore has reached 4.2 billion yuan.

Recently, Ganfeng Lithium announced that it had received notification from Ganfeng International Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Ganfeng"), a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, that the Mexican government had approved the offer to acquire Bacanora. So far, more than 75% of Bacanora shareholders have accepted the tender offer.

It is reported that after the completion of the deal, Shanghai Ganfeng will hold a 100 per cent stake in Bacanora. This is the first time that Ganfeng Lithium Industry has taken full control of overseas lithium mining assets since its establishment.

On the other hand, Ningde era, which competes with Ganfeng Lithium Industry for lithium mining, has also subscribed for stakes in two overseas lithium mining companies since 2018 and established a joint venture with German Nano, a leading company in lithium iron phosphate cathode materials. In 2020, Ningde era also participated in the capital increase of lithium iron phosphate material enterprises such as Hunan Yuneng and Jiangxi sublimation.

In December, Millennial Lithium, a Canadian lithium mining company, said in a statement that it had reached a final agreement with Chinese battery maker Ningde Times to acquire a 100% stake in Millennial for C $376.8 million (1.9 billion yuan) and repay a $10 million termination fee to Ganfeng Lithium.

In addition, Guoxuan Tech has successively arranged positive electrode, negative electrode, copper foil, diaphragm, electrolyte and other upstream raw materials and battery recycling.

In November 2021, the installed capacity of domestic power batteries was 20.8 GWH, an increase of 96% over the same period last year and 35% compared with the same period last year. Among them, the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries was 11.6 GWH, an increase of 145% over the same period last year, an increase of 37% compared with the same period last year, and 55.8% of them were installed in a single month. Guoxin Securities expects that with the continued hot sales of downstream iron-lithium models and the replacement of iron-lithium batteries in the future standard version of Tesla, the proportion of iron and lithium is still expected to maintain a high level. In addition, according to the analysis of Soochow Securities, thanks to the rapid development of production and sales of new energy vehicles, the increase in permeability and the increase in the proportion of lithium iron phosphate power batteries, superimposed with its promising future development in the field of energy storage, the global demand for lithium iron phosphate is expected to increase from 136000 tons in 2020 to 2.724 million tons in 2025.