The rebound in downstream new energy battery production supports the prices of cobalt and lithium

SHANGHAI, Oct 21 (SMM) – The latest data shows that the supply of cobalt sulfate and cobaltosic oxide tightened from September to October. Demand remains high in October, and the cobalt prices remain stable. In terms of lithium, with the increasing output across lithium salt factories in October, the shortage situation will be gradually eased, and the increase of downstream procurement will slow down in the fourth quarter. It is expected that the prices of lithium carbonate are likely to remain stable in the following weeks.

According to the data of China Automobile Association, the production and sales of new energy vehicles stood at 136,000 and 138,000 respectively in September, up 48% and 67.7% respectively compared with the same period of last year, and the production and sales both set a new record in September. Among them, the passenger car markets saw huge increase, and the B class market, A00 market have grown. The production and sales of Hongguang MINI continued to increase in September, maintaining the first position. In addition, the production and sales of Tesla Model 3, BYD "Han" and car making new force models also increased accordingly.

According to the data of China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, China's power battery output totaled 8.6GWh in September, up 12.7% year on year and 15.7% month on month. Among them, the output of ternary batteries stood at 4.8GWh, accounting for 55.2% of the total output, up 0.7% year on year and 8.8% month on month. The output of lithium iron phosphate battery stood at 3.8GWh, accounting for 44.6% of the total output, up 34% year on year and 27.5% month on month.

Ternary batteries output continued to increase in September, still occupying a large share in the passenger car market, among which the demand for 5 series ternary batteries increased greatly. The higher growth rate of lithium iron batteries output is mainly due to the substantial increase of BYD's "Han" output. SAIC GM Wuling increased the proportion of iron and lithium installed capacity in CATL. In addition, the sup porting iron and lithium installed capacity of Chery Automobile, SAIC, Hezhong New Energy and other car companies also increased significantly. It is expected that the iron lithium version of Model 3 will be added in the following weeks, and the share of iron lithium batteries in passenger cars will continue to increase.