The hidden corner of the new energy industry chain: lithium giants gather batteries to recycle into new gold spots

The development of new energy vehicles is gradually driving into the deep water area, while the installed capacity of power batteries continues to rise, the industrial chain will also focus on the recycling of waste batteries. Car companies and battery factories have come off the scene one after another, striving for gold in the "garbage", and the flames of war have gone from battery manufacturing to recycling all the way.

Business Korea reported today that LG Energy Solutions said it plans to sell waste batteries to recyclers and extract nickel and cobalt from them to produce battery cathode materials. SK Innovation and Samsung SDI have also made the same layout.

According to the incomplete statistics of Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, since July, the enterprises at the head of the industrial chain have acted frequently in the link of waste batteries.

In addition, on July 7, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued a circular on the 14th five-year Plan for the development of circular economy, which pointed out that the production of new and waste products such as power batteries has increased significantly, and it is difficult to recover and disassemble them. The planned key projects and actions include the recycling of waste power batteries.

The market scale reaches the order of one million and the industry pattern is emerging.

In recent years, there has been an upsurge of electrification in the automobile industry, and the number of new energy vehicles has increased year by year. By the end of June this year, the number of new energy vehicles in China has reached 6.03 million. However, there is the problem of recycling power batteries.

According to national regulations, if the power battery capacity declines to less than 80% of the rated capacity, it will be decommissioned and forced to be recycled, while the latest batch of new energy vehicles equipped with power batteries have been decommissioned. According to the data, the decommissioning of power batteries in China is as high as 200000 tons (about 25GWh) in 2020, and it is expected that the number of decommissioned batteries will increase by more than one million magnitude every year after 2025.

In addition to the size of the market, the value of raw materials is also a major reason for manufacturers' attention. Industry insiders pointed out that through battery recycling, manufacturers can obtain lithium, cobalt, nickel and other raw materials to avoid price fluctuations. According to the "Market scale and Recycling Technology of waste Lithium Ion batteries", taking NCM523 batteries as an example, the metal contents of nickel, cobalt and manganese are 11.78%, 4.75% and 6.65%, respectively, and the recycling value is high. Even the lithium iron phosphate battery with the lowest precious metal content still has a 1.6% lithium content higher than the raw ore developed and utilized in China with a grade of only 0.8-1.4%.

China International Capital Corporation reported on August 10 that battery recycling helps to alleviate the pressure on the supply of raw materials, is in line with the general policy of ecological environmental protection, and is optimistic about the high outlook of the battery recycling market in the future, while the strategic cooperation between battery enterprises and battery recycling is also expected to further strengthen the vertical and deep integration of the industrial chain.

From the perspective of the market pattern, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued a whitelist of battery comprehensive utilization in 2018 and 2021, with a total of 27 enterprises in two batches. In addition to the battery manufacturers such as BYD, Ningde Times, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, and Lulai, which have already arranged battery recycling,

Sinorama Science and Technology, as one of the first batch of five companies that meet the requirements, has a strong advantage in the field of battery recycling.

In 2020, the company's power battery recycling volume doubled over 2019, achieving 93 million yuan in revenue, an increase of 175.11% over the same period last year.