Even if you have money, you can't buy it! When will the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate continue to soar?

SMM: since entering 2021, with the increasing popularity of new energy vehicles, the demand for power batteries has skyrocketed. While lithium hexafluorophosphate accounts for nearly 40% of the core material in power battery electrolyte, because of its technical barriers and environmental protection requirements, the speed of production expansion is not equal to consumer demand, and inventory has already reached an all-time low.

In this context, the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate has also tripled from 100000 yuan / ton at the beginning of the year to 400000 yuan / ton today. But even so, many power battery companies are still facing the miserable situation of "having money but not being able to buy goods".

Therefore, in order to seize the opportunity, the major battery enterprises have begun to seize the domestic lithium hexafluorophosphate resources.

On August 2nd, Yongtai Technology, one of the suppliers of lithium hexafluorophosphate, announced that it signed a "material purchase Agreement" with Ningde Times, promising to supply lithium hexafluorophosphate difluorosulfonimide lithium (LIFSI) and vinyl carbonate (VC) products to Ningde era within the validity period. The agreement is valid from July 31, 2021 to December 31, 2026.

Ningde Times is not only aiming at the supply of lithium hexafluorophosphate from Yongtai Technology, but also signed a two-year agreement with Ningde Kaixin Battery material Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of China's main supplier of lithium hexafluorophosphate, Ningde Kaixin Battery material Co., Ltd. during the contract period, Ningde Kaixin supplies Ningde era with 15000 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate corresponding quantity electrolyte products.

It is worth mentioning that due to the soaring price of lithium hexafluorophosphate, it is not only the Ningde era that has made rapid response measures, but BYD has also repeatedly sold to major domestic suppliers. According to the announcement of Dofuoduo on July 17, BYD is expected to purchase 6460 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate from it; on July 18, Tianji shares also announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Xintai Materials and Shenzhen BYD have signed a "long-term Cooperation Agreement" on the long-term supply of lithium hexafluorophosphate. Xintai Materials supplies no less than 3500 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate to Shenzhen BYD during the period from July 2021 to December 2022. The supply of 3600,7800 tons in 2023, the specific capacity available to the two sides will be negotiated in December 2022.

In addition, Funeng Technology and Polyfluorodo signed a contract to purchase 1700 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate. And facts have proved that not only domestic battery companies began to lock in domestic lithium hexafluorophosphate suppliers, but on July 22nd, LG New Energy also threw an olive branch to Jiujiang Tianzhi, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jiujiang Tianshi, agreeing to purchase an estimated total of 55000 tons of electrolyte products from Jiujiang Tianshi during the second half of 2021 to the end of 2023.

Under the background that lithium hexafluorophosphate is so in short supply, major domestic suppliers and enterprises have also begun to increase production and expand production. Tianci publicly disclosed its company's relevant production capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate in June, the company has an annual production capacity of 30, 000 tons of liquid lithium hexafluorophosphate, while the production capacity of solid lithium hexafluorophosphate has reached 2000 tons per year. Not only that, the company's private offering also includes a project with an annual production capacity of 60000 tons of liquid lithium hexafluorophosphate, which is expected to start trial production at the end of the third quarter.

Polyfluorodol is also set to achieve the target of 30,000 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate production capacity by the end of 2022. It is reported that lithium hexafluorophosphate, which currently has an annual production capacity of 10000 tons / year, will be gradually put into operation in the second half of the year according to market conditions. Tianji shares also said in early June that the company's wholly-owned subsidiary Xintai Materials annual production capacity of 6000 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate project is gradually released, and the total capacity is expected to reach 8160 tons. Yongtai Technology previously released data that the company's expanded project with an annual production capacity of 6000 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate and 1500 tons of lithium difluorosulfonimide is progressing smoothly. If nothing happens, the production capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate will reach 8000 tons by the end of 2021. Binhua said on the interactive platform on July 23 that the company's design capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate was 1000 tons / year, with an output of 182tons in 2020.

But even so, considering that the investment of lithium hexafluorophosphate project is difficult, the expansion cycle is long, and it generally takes more than one and a half years, at present, most of the production capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate on the market still depends on several large enterprises with mature technology on the market, and the new production capacity in the market is limited in the short term.

Some institutions even predict that even though the major suppliers of lithium hexafluorophosphate are increasing production and expanding production, considering technical barriers and environmental requirements, the production cycle of lithium hexafluorophosphate and electrolyte additive VC is still about one year behind, and the tight supply of electrolyte will last until 2022.

Affected by the good news such as the sharp increase in the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate, the lithium battery plate rose again today, with multiple shares of lithium hexafluorophosphate-related stocks such as Polyfluoroduo, Tianji shares and Yan'an Bikang rising by the daily limit, and divine materials rose.