The competition main line of hundreds of billions of lithium electricity recovery industry is becoming clearer and clearer by seizing the high quality supply and extending the industrial chain.

The policy is favorable to superimpose the wave of battery decommissioning, the market expectations for the outbreak of lithium recycling continue to strengthen, and some brokers have called out the goal of a global market of more than 100 billion yuan by 2030. A reporter from the Financial Associated Press learned that thanks to the rise in the price of lithium salt, the prosperity of the industry remains high, and relevant manufacturers are expected to benefit. However, the industry is also faced with safety and environmental protection and other problems, the overall process level needs to be improved. In the long run, grabbing high-quality sources of goods and extending the industrial chain will be the main line of competition in the industry.

"now the price of waste batteries has been rising, and the price is constantly rising." Zhu Baoyi, general manager of Nandu Power (300068.SZ), told the Financial Associated Press. According to him, 25000 tons of capacity in the first phase of the company's 100000-ton lithium power recovery project will be released one after another from March this year, and lithium salt will be the first to come out. The production cycle of recycled waste batteries from batteries to resources is about 20 days. When the price of raw materials is stable, the company expects the gross profit of the products to be about 20% and 30%.

Under the optimistic expectation, the long-term development of the industry still faces certain challenges. "waste recovery involves environmental protection, safety, process technology, and other issues, but it is actually a time-consuming and time-consuming task. In the past, output has never been raised, so it is not easy to do. Taking the first step of battery breakage as an example, I have inspected many projects all over the country, and the overall technology is mediocre. Of course, the technology of the industry is also constantly improving, and this year is certainly better than last year. With the arrival of the wave of retirement, the output is also expected to improve, but it will take time for the overall development. " Wang Ming (a pseudonym), founder of a lithium recycling company in Zhejiang, told the Financial Associated Press.

Snatch the supply of high quality goods

At present, the main advantage of the lithium battery recycling industry is that with the arrival of the wave of retirement, the scale of the industry is expected to increase significantly. According to the China Automotive Technology Research Center, the cumulative decommissioning of power batteries in China is expected to reach 780000 tons in 2025.

However, it should be noted that at this stage, the supply of retired batteries in the consumer market is still limited and scattered. In order to ensure battery supply, industry-scale companies generally choose to cooperate directly with vehicle factories.

Zhu Baoyi pointed out: "at present, we mainly purchase waste batteries in the production process, or some of the waste formed in the production process, inventory that has not been sold. For scale recycling manufacturers, the current supply mainly comes from vehicle factories, so the overall supply of raw materials will be tight, but with the large-scale decommissioning of waste batteries in the next 3-5 years, the supply of waste batteries is expected to be more abundant. "

According to Zhu Baoyi, the company has established a variety of recycling channels, including: relying on the Nandu power lead-acid battery recycling network and the downstream customer relationship of the power battery industry chain, integrating middlemen and establishing a recycling network; with lithium power enterprises, materials factories to establish a tripartite bundled strategic cooperation for the recovery and reuse of iron-lithium batteries, giving full play to their respective advantages to become bigger and stronger; Rely on Nandu Power holding subsidiary to quickly power APP recycling platform for recycling.

The pressure to compete for supplies has also prompted small and medium-sized companies to seek support.

In January this year, Zhejiang Lixin New material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zhejiang Lixin) introduced Wangneng Environment (002034.SZ) when the battery recycling production line was about to be put into production. According to a research summary obtained by a reporter of the Financial Associated Press, Zhejiang Lixin's own channel is mainly battery traders, which is small and scattered, while Meixinda Group, a major shareholder of Wang Neng Environment, has an advantage in the field of automobile disassembly, which will be one of the important recycling channels for waste batteries in the future.

Extend the industrial chain

In addition to ensuring an adequate supply of goods, industry companies will extend the industrial chain as the focus of development.

"extending to the upper and lower reaches of the industrial chain, making it bigger and stronger must be the common goal of the industry, but how to layout is difficult to say, it still depends on the strategic planning of each company." Wang Ming said.

On February 14, a reporter from the Financial Associated Press called 002340.SZ and 002074.SZ as investors, and the relevant officials responded that the long industrial chain had a relative advantage. As the leader of the industry, Grimme proposed to build a full life cycle value chain of "power battery recycling-echelon utilization-raw material remanufacturing-material remanufacturing-power battery package recycling".

It is reported that the recycling of lithium batteries is basically divided into two directions, one is echelon utilization, the other is recycling. Among them, the essence of echelon utilization is the renovation of waste batteries. If the battery can not reach the echelon utilization value, the metal materials such as cobalt and nickel can be further extracted from the battery, and then lithium carbonate and other products can be made.

Around the echelon utilization and recycling, the industrial chain companies will have some differences in the layout of processing links.

"the step-by-step utilization is to test the residual energy of the single cell, divide the capacity, match the group, and finally make the Pack package and sell it, similar to refurbishment, this kind of profit is relatively high, the rest can not be renovated, further to extract lithium salt, the company currently achieves the step of lithium carbonate, the follow-up link is not involved for the time being." Zhu Baoyi said. Zhejiang Lixin is based on the existing recycling business to gradually expand to the field of echelon utilization, but also reflects the characteristics of some small and medium-sized manufacturers.

Caixin Securities pointed out that the global battery echelon utilization market space is expected to exceed 100 billion in 2030. If the price of recycled metal salts (lithium carbonate, nickel sulfate / cobalt / manganese) is measured in terms of steady supply and demand, and the recovery rate of 90% is considered, the global market space for battery recycling will reach 100 billion yuan in 2030.

In the face of this deterministic opportunity, enterprises inside and outside the industrial chain have poured in one after another. Upstream material merchants such as Green Mei and Huayou Cobalt (603799.SH) are in the lead in terms of production capacity. Mid-stream battery link, Ningde Times (300750.SZ), Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Nandu Power supply have all been involved. In addition, Jinyuan shares (000546.SZ), Sinorama Technology (002741.SZ), Wang Neng Environment, beyond Technology (301049.SZ), 603335.SH and other companies have carried out strategic positions.