Lithium power three bully production capacity release which is strong? The number of lithium industry in Tianqi is the first.

Lithium salt enterprises look at lithium raw material resources for a long time, and look at the pace of production capacity and expansion in the medium and long term. In this lithium cycle, Ganfeng Lithium Industry (002460 SZ) "perfectly" stepped into the tuyere, adding 50, 000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide at the end of last year; Ya Chemical Group (002497 SZ) should increase the original fund-raising project battery-grade lithium hydroxide production capacity from 20, 000 tons to 50, 000 tons; Tianqi Lithium Industry (00246 SZ) is under construction of 20, 000 tons of lithium hydroxide and 48000 tons of lithium carbonate (Quinana project in Australia).

At present, Ganfeng Lithium Industry has a production capacity of 81000 tons of lithium hydroxide, 40500 tons of lithium carbonate and 1600 tons of metal lithium. In addition, the Argentine Cauchari-Olaroz Lithium Salt Lake project will produce 40, 000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year in 2022. Ganfeng Lithium Industry has a 51 per cent stake in the project and 76 per cent product underwriting rights.

According to its 2020 annual report, the effective capacity of lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide and lithium metal in Ganfeng lithium industry is 25800 tons, 31000 tons and 1600 tons respectively, and the utilization rate of effective capacity is 57%, 88% and 99% respectively. For the reason why there is a large gap between design capacity and effective capacity, the company said that since not all production lines are fully built at the beginning of each year, there is a process of gradually releasing capacity. In addition, as the production line needs to be overhauled and upgraded within a fixed period of time, it will also lead to changes in effective production capacity to a certain extent. According to a rough conversion by a reporter from the Financial Associated Press, the utilization rate of the company's lithium salt design capacity should be 35%.

People close to the Ganfeng lithium industry said that at present, Ganfeng lithium industry-related lithium products are fully sold, and there may be only one week's inventory for turnover. The 50,000-ton lithium hydroxide project was in the climbing phase in the first quarter and just reached full production at the end of the first quarter.

Tianqi Lithium Industry has a total capacity of about 44800 tons / year for lithium chemical products, including 34500 tons / year for lithium carbonate and 5000 tons / year for lithium hydroxide. In addition, the company also has 48000 tons / year of lithium hydroxide and 20, 000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate under construction, of which Quinana's first phase of 24000 tons of lithium hydroxide project aims to reach production in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Because Tianqi lithium industry did not disclose the capacity utilization of various lithium salt products in detail, according to its 2020 annual report, the production capacity of chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing industry is 3.81 tons, so its rough statistics show that its capacity utilization rate is 85%.

Yahua Group has a production capacity of 20, 000 tons of lithium carbonate and 30, 000 tons of lithium hydroxide, but due to the company's flexible production and the difficulty of full production of the old production line, according to the caliber disclosed by the company, it has a lithium salt production capacity of 43000 tons. It is understood that the preliminary work of the second phase of the 50,000-ton lithium hydroxide new project has been basically completed, and construction is about to begin. Due to the existing construction experience, the construction time of the second phase of the project is expected to be shorter than that of the first phase.

In 2020, Yahua Group produced 13100 tons of lithium products for the whole year, equivalent to 30 per cent capacity utilization. Since the Ya'an lithium industry's 20,000-ton lithium carbonate project was put into production in July last year, which is not equivalent to effective capacity, the capacity utilization rate is the lowest of the above three companies. According to industry insiders, the 20,000-ton lithium carbonate project is expected to reach 100% capacity utilization this year. The company also said that the current lithium product market is bullish, and the company's products are in short supply.

To sum up, according to the statistics of the Financial Associated Press, from the point of view of lithium production capacity, Ganfeng lithium industry is the well-deserved leader, lithium production capacity Ganfeng lithium industry (123100 tons) > Tianqi lithium industry (44800 tons) > Yahua Group (43000 tons). In terms of capacity utilization, Tianqi lithium industry (85%) > Ganfeng lithium industry (35%) > Yahua group (30%). This may mean that the short-term performance of Yahhua Group may be more flexible than that of the company itself in the lithium business sector.

In terms of lithium salt production capacity, extending to the upstream and downstream industry chain, Ganfeng lithium industry has a higher business model or safety margin of vertical integration, its business runs through upstream lithium resource development, mid-stream lithium salt deep processing and metal lithium smelting, downstream lithium battery manufacturing and comprehensive recycling of decommissioned lithium batteries, while Tianqi lithium industry integrates upstream resource reserve, development and mid-stream lithium product processing, while Ya Hua Group suffers from only mid-stream lithium product processing.