The battle is getting more and more intense! Housing enterprises, steel enterprises are grabbing "it" across the border! Is there "lithium" all over the world?

At present, metal lithium is the most important raw material for power battery production. It can be said that whoever has mastered the lithium resources will grasp the future of new energy. In 2022, the tension in the global lithium resources market spread. Not only are the relevant industries busy looking for lithium around the world, but some companies from outside the industry are also crossing the border to join the fight for lithium.

The global competition for lithium resources is becoming increasingly fierce in 2022.

The giant quickly grabbed the upstream lithium resources

In February, Tesla signed a large lithium ore purchase order with an Australian lithium miner, and in December 2021, Rio Tinto, the world's second-largest mining company, announced plans to buy the Argentine lithium project for $825 million.

Profitable steel enterprises, housing enterprises, cross-border "lithium"

Recently, companies that grab lithium across the border have also emerged one after another. South Korean steel giant Posco said on March 21st that it would invest $4 billion in a lithium mine project in Argentina. Recently, Chinese real estate company Song du shares announced that it plans to contribute 1.6 billion yuan to participate in Argentina's lithium resources project, the stock price rose sharply against the trend in a short period of time, causing many questions. On April 1, Songdu shares received a disciplinary warning from the regulatory authorities because of information disclosure violations.

Behind the cross-border is a huge market prospect. According to the data, the global lithium-ion battery market is about $40.5 billion in 2020, and the market is expected to reach nearly $92 billion in 2026, more than double the size of the market in 2020.

The shortage of domestic lithium resources is expected to improve around 2025.

The global reserves of lithium resources are limited, of which Chile ranks first, accounting for 44% of the global reserves. Although China's lithium resources are not low, ranking sixth in the world, due to the lack of refining technology, it is difficult to reduce costs. At present, China still needs to import about 70% of its lithium resources.

Zeng Shaojun, Secretary General of the New Energy Chamber of Commerce of the all-China Federation of Industry and Commerce: with the domestic lithium mica project, the salt lake lithium extraction technology project, and the continuous improvement of spodumene mining technology, we estimate that around 2025, the shortage of lithium resources will be greatly improved.

In recent years, the development of enterprises related to lithium resources in China has been accelerated. Up to now, there are more than 400 lithium mining related enterprises in China, of which 64 are newly registered in 2021, an increase of more than 20% over the same period last year.

Zeng Shaojun, secretary general of the New Energy Chamber of Commerce of the all-China Federation of Industry and Commerce: to make an analogy, the cost of solar photovoltaic power generation was 3 yuan per kilowatt-hour ten years ago, but today it is 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, so once we embark on a benign path of cost reduction, the prospects of the whole new energy vehicles, the prospects of the lithium industry are still quite optimistic.