The lithium grabbing by head enterprises is still going on in the future, or more battery companies may join in.

At the beginning of the new year, battery manufacturers, especially power battery manufacturers, are busy hoarding lithium.

On January 13, it was reported that Chile had given two of the five lithium mining contracts to BYD Chile and a local company. BYD offered $61 million for an 80, 000-tonne lithium production quota. BYD confirmed the news to the media.

On the same day, foreign media reported that LG New Energy had signed a procurement agreement with Australian lithium producer Liontown Resources. The two sides agreed that starting from 2024, LG New Energy will purchase 700000 dry tons of spodumene concentrate within five years, which can be extended for another five years when it expires. It is estimated that 700000 dry tons of spodumene concentrate can meet the battery lithium needs of about 2.5 million electric vehicles.

Just the day before, Yiwei LiNeng announced that the company took a 35.29% stake in Xinghua Lithium Salt with a bid of 144 million yuan, and a 13.71% stake in Xinghua Lithium Salt with 56.0158 million yuan, which will directly hold 49% of Xinghua Lithium Salt.

The day before the acquisition of Xinghua Lithium Salt, Yiwei LiNeng also announced that it signed a "strategic cooperation agreement" with Lanxiao Technology, and the two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in the lithium resources industry chain. and actively participate in the development and utilization of lithium resources in Jieze Chaka Salt Lake in Tibet. Lanxiao Technology will urge all parties involved in the project to give priority to the long-term supply of qualified lithium salt to the company and its designated parties at competitive prices, with a tentative cooperation period of 15 years.

Recently, Jiang Weiping, chairman of Tianqi Lithium Industry, said in an interview with the media: "Lithium industry is a 'marathon road' with a long period and high demeanor. Tianqi Lithium Industry will continue to pay attention to high-quality lithium resources and focus on promoting existing capacity expansion projects. "

If the time is moved forward, in 2021, including Ningde era, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Yiwei Lithium Energy, BYD and other head battery manufacturers have carried out a series of in-depth layout of upstream lithium resources and raw materials. However, from the future capacity demand, as well as the supply of resources, enterprises seem to feel that it is far from enough.

According to the data, sales of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market increased 1.6 times to 3.521 million in 2021, with a market share of 13.4%, an increase of 8 percentage points over 2020.

Based on the recognition of the rapid outbreak of the market in 2021 and the increased acceptance of new energy vehicles in the end market, some industry organizations predict that the sales of new energy passenger vehicles in the Chinese market are expected to reach 5.5 million in 2022. The overall sales of new energy vehicles are likely to exceed 6 million, and the market penetration rate will be about 22%.

In fact, based on the prediction of lithium battery demand in electric vehicles and energy storage market, the most important work for head battery manufacturers in 2021 is capacity expansion and supply chain security construction.

In terms of production capacity, including Ningde Times, Fudi Battery, LG New Energy, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Honeycomb Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, China New Airlines, Funeng Technology, Vision Power, Xinwanda, Lishen Battery, Jiewei Power and so on all carried out a large-scale production capacity layout. The relevant production capacity under construction and planning has exceeded 2000GWh.

Based on the growth rate of new energy vehicles in Chinese and foreign markets, the demand for lithium resources will become more tense in the next few years. Standard & Poor's Global reported in December that lithium shortages were expected in 2022 as the use of lithium exceeded production and depleted stocks. The International Energy Agency forecasts that driven by downstream market demand, only relying on existing and under construction lithium production projects, there will be a global lithium demand gap of about 50% by 2030.

At the same time, with the "blowout" of power battery demand, the mismatch of lithium capacity construction time, and the rapid consumption of inventory, key materials such as lithium concentrate and lithium carbonate also rose sharply in 2021. Market data show that the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate will increase by as much as 418% in 2021.

For battery enterprises, in order to ensure the stable market capacity in the future, the security of the supply chain is more important. In the view of industry insiders, the certainty of the rapid growth of lithium battery demand in the electric vehicle and energy storage market in the next few years is very strong, so the safe and stable supply of upstream products such as lithium ore and lithium salt will become the key or even important competitiveness for the development of enterprises. In addition, with the rising prices of various raw and auxiliary materials, buying and locking ore has become the most viable response for sense of security.

In terms of the distribution of lithium mineral resources, battery companies such as Ningde era, BYD, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Xin Wanda and so on have all made efforts.

For example, in terms of domestic salt lake lithium resources, Ningde era and BYD were laid out one after another through equity participation and joint venture companies as early as a few years ago. for example, in 2010, BYD took a stake in Zabuye Salt Lake, China's largest salt lake lithium mine. It has invested 18% of Tibet's Zabuye lithium industry and made a certain strategic reserve in upstream raw materials. In 2017, BYD announced that it had made a breakthrough in the technology of extracting lithium from salt lake, and based on this, it had a joint venture with Salt Lake shares to develop lithium resources in Qinghai salt lake.

In 2021, Yiwei LiNeng, Guoxuan Hi-Tech and Xin Wanda also began to spend a lot of money. Among them, in July 2021, Yiwei LiNeng issued a number of announcements: it acquired 28.125% of the shares in Jinkunlun Lithium Industry and set up a joint venture with Jinkunlun Lithium Industry, with an investment of no more than 1.8 billion yuan in phases to build a project with an annual production capacity of 30, 000 tons of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. Dahua Chemical enjoys the mining rights in Dachidan Salt Lake with a 5% stake in Dahua Chemical Co., Ltd. Tibet Yiwei Holdings Co., Ltd., the company's controlling shareholder, intends to acquire 29% of Dahua Chemical Co., Ltd.

In November of the same year, Xinwanda formed a four-in-one consortium of "resources + technology + capital + market" with four new energy enterprises, namely, Salt Lake Industry, Huayu Holdings, Huaneng Investment and Xi'an Jinzang Film. The strategic cooperation agreement of "Lithium Electric Energy Storage Integrated Zero carbon Industrial Park of Qinghai World-class Salt Lake Industrial Base" was signed with Qinghai provincial government. The relevant parties will focus on the construction of the world-class salt lake industrial base and the integrated zero-carbon industrial park of lithium electric energy storage, based on the rich lithium resources of the salt lake, to help Qinghai Province to build a world-class salt lake industrial base and the integrated zero-carbon industrial park of lithium electric energy storage.

In December of the same year, Guoxuan Hi-Tech and Salt Lake signed a cooperation framework agreement. The two sides give full play to their respective advantages and plan to cooperate deeply in the fields of new energy, lithium electricity, scientific and technological research and development, lithium-magnesium materials and personnel training, so as to further enhance each other's competitiveness in the field of new energy.

In addition, Ningde era, BYD and Guoxuan Hi-Tech have also carried out in-depth layout of domestic lithium mineral resources.

At present, among the head enterprises, China New Airlines and Honeycomb Energy have respectively proposed to achieve the production capacity targets of 500GWh and 600GWh by 2025 in the capacity target planning of power and energy storage battery. in order to ensure the safe release of production capacity, it is believed that the layout actions of these two enterprises in the upstream resource side will also occur frequently in the future.