SHANGHAI, Aug 3 (SMM) - On August 2, Tonze Electric announced that the company had signed the Contract on Investment and Construction of Tonze Electric New Energy and New Materials Project with Ruichang Municipal People's Government, and planned to invest about 3 billion yuan to build a new supporting project with an annual output of 30,000 mt of lithium hexafluorophosphate, 6,000 mt of high purity LiF and by-products. It is reported that the land area of the new project is expected to reach 235.44 mu, with a construction period of 18 months. After the project reaches the production standard, the annual output value will be about 6 billion yuan.
Tonze Electric said that the investment is in line with the company's strategic planning and the demand trend of the new energy industry. The project will further improve the company's production capacity layout and help promote the company's long-term stable development.
According to the latest capacity data released by the company in July 2022, its annual capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate stood at 18,160 mt, including the original lithium hexafluorophosphate production plant with an annual capacity of 8,160 mt and the expanded plant with an annual capacity of 10,000 mt. At present, the trial production of the company's lithium hexafluorophosphate device with an output of 10,000 mt is progressing smoothly.
According to the SMM data, spot prices of lithium hexafluorophosphate have been on an upward trend since 2022, during which the highest price once rose to 599,000 yuan/mt. However, due to the pandemic, the poor downstream consumption and the continuous increase in new production capacity, the prices slumped, with the lowest price standing at 254,000 yuan/mt.
Regarding the downward trend of lithium hexafluorophosphate prices, Tonze Electric replied that the growth rate of the company's performance in the second quarter slowed down due to the price increase in raw materials and the fall of product prices in the market. In the second quarter, the market prices of lithium hexafluorophosphate products dropped sharply, which did not affect the long-term order prices of the company. However, the soaring prices of raw materials squeezed the company's profit margins.
On July 16, Tonze Electric responded that its full production of lithium hexafluorophosphate was sold out.
Recently, the high prices of lithium carbonate/LiF and rising prices of PCl₅ pushed the lithium hexafluorophosphate prices to continue to rise.
As of August 3, the spot prices of lithium hexafluorophosphate rose again to 250,000-266,000 yuan/mt, with the average price of 258,000 yuan/mt, which increased by 1,000 yuan/mt in a single day.
