The "myth" of lithium hexafluorophosphate remains the same?

In the past few months, Ningde era, BYD, Funeng Technology and other industry leaders have frantically opened the mode of material procurement, especially the purchase of lithium hexafluorophosphate from manufacturers such as polyfluorodo, divine materials, Yongtai Technology, Skyline shares, and so on. The quantity is quite staggering.

For example, BYD purchases no less than 56050 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate products from Dofurdo. If all lithium iron phosphate batteries are produced, the corresponding battery capacity is about 448GWh.This is just one of BYD's many purchases. Divine material supplies Ningde era with a corresponding quantity of electrolyte products with an estimated consumption of 15000 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate, and the corresponding battery capacity reaches 100GWh level.

In terms of delivery time, it covers from January 2022 to December 2025. Now it has entered late March 2022, the "order effect" of many lithium hexafluorophosphate manufacturers began to appear in the financial statements, showing the super income-generating ability of lithium hexafluorophosphate.

On March 20, Skyline disclosed its performance forecast that the net profit in the first quarter of 2022 is expected to be 400 million yuan to 440 million yuan, an increase of 742.8% 827.08% over the same period last year. Prior to this, Dofudo issued a forecast for the first quarter of 2022, and the net profit attributed to shareholders of listed companies was 700-730 million yuan, an increase of 650.55% and 682.72% over the same period last year. In the first two months of preliminary accounting, Tianci achieved operating income of about 3.3 billion yuan, an increase of about 260% over the same period last year, and a net profit of about 860 million yuan, an increase of about 470% over the same period last year.

Tianji said that the company's lithium hexafluorophosphate production plant continued to maintain full capacity production, the production and sales volume of lithium hexafluorophosphate increased significantly compared with the first quarter of 2021, and the sales price also increased significantly compared with the first quarter of 2021. Lithium hexafluorophosphate enterprise performance, as Skyline shares said, on the one hand, due to exceptionally full orders, on the other hand, due to the soaring price of lithium hexafluorophosphate.

Industry data show that in July 2020, the average market price of lithium hexafluorophosphate was only about 70,000 yuan / ton. By January 2021, the average market price of lithium hexafluorophosphate reached 112500 yuan / ton; on December 30, 2021, the average market price of lithium hexafluorophosphate reached 565000 yuan / ton. The price of lithium hexafluorophosphate remains high in 2022, and its current market price range is 520000 ~ 570000 yuan / ton, even reaching a high of 600000 yuan / ton.

On the whole, the price increase of lithium hexafluorophosphate started in the fourth quarter of 2020, and the market price of lithium hexafluorophosphate has increased by more than 700% for more than a year. "the high prosperity of the new energy vehicle industry has led to the market demand for new materials such as lithium hexafluorophosphate. Coupled with the mismatch between supply and demand of lithium hexafluorophosphate, prices have risen rapidly since last year." Industry insiders said.

According to the data of the Power Battery Application Branch, the installed capacity of power batteries for new energy vehicles in China will be 159.59 GWH in 2021, an increase of more than 152% over the same period last year. In 2022, the total installed capacity of power batteries in China from January to February was about 30GWH, an increase of more than 100% over the same period last year, highlighting the magnificent demeanor of the market. In the future, with the increase of the permeability of new energy vehicles and the rapid increase of the energy storage market, the demand for lithium key materials such as lithium hexafluorophosphate may continue.

According to analysts at Wanlian Securities, the global demand for lithium hexafluorophosphate will exceed 200000 tons by 2025, with a compound growth rate of more than 40 per cent from 2021 to 2025. China's demand for lithium hexafluorophosphate is expected to exceed 100000 tons by 2025, with a compound growth rate of about 37% from 2021 to 2025. At present, the domestic supply and demand structure of lithium hexafluorophosphate is in a tight balance and will be maintained at least until the middle of 2022.

From the supply side, the total global output of lithium hexafluorophosphate in 2021 is 68000 tons, of which China's output of lithium hexafluorophosphate is 52000 tons, accounting for more than 70 per cent of the world's total output. In 2021, the top four lithium hexafluorophosphate manufacturers in the world are all Chinese enterprises, with a total market share of 56%. However, by the end of 2021, there were only two domestic enterprises with a production capacity of more than 10,000 tons, namely Divine-sent Materials and Polyfluorodo.

Based on the market pattern of demand and supply, there is a huge supply gap in the capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate at present and for a period of time in the future. According to industry estimates, the supply gap of lithium hexafluorophosphate will be 17000 tons in 2022, 35000 tons in 2023, and more than 60, 000 tons in 2024.

At present, many lithium hexafluorophosphate manufacturers are increasing production expansion efforts. The company has a production capacity of 20, 000 tons of high-purity crystal lithium hexafluorophosphate by the end of 2021, and plans to build a new production line of 35000 tons in 2022, with a total production capacity of 55000 tons by the end of the year.

"most of the company's lithium hexafluorophosphate expansion projects are progressing smoothly, ahead of schedule. According to the company's production expansion schedule, shipments are expected to be 35000-40,000 tons in 2022 and planned to exceed 100000 tons / year capacity in 2023-2024." The person in charge of Dofurdo said.

According to the announcement in November last year, the company has an annual output of 150000 tons of lithium electricity material project construction content of 60, 000 tons of liquid lithium hexafluorophosphate equipment, and an annual capacity of 150000 tons of electrolyte mother liquor preparation device, has completed the installation and commissioning of production equipment, and has the conditions for trial production.

Tianji shares said that the company's original capacity of 8160 tons / year lithium hexafluorophosphate has been fully released and is currently operating at full capacity. In 2021, Skyline achieved an actual output of 9364 tons, which is higher than its designed capacity of 8160 tons and double the actual production of 4602 tons in 2020. It is reported that the 10,000 tons / year production line added by Skyline is scheduled to start trial production in April this year, and another 30,000 tons / year capacity project is under construction.

In addition, the current production capacity of Yan'an Bikang Lithium hexafluorophosphate has reached 6400 tons / year. Yongtai Technology's 8000 tons / year capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate and 900tons / year production line of lithium difluorosulfonimide have been put into production. at present, liquid lithium hexafluorophosphate with an annual capacity of 67000 tons and liquid lithium difluorosulfonimide with an annual capacity of 67000 tons are under construction. Shida Shenghua's lithium hexafluorophosphate project with an annual capacity of 5000 tons / year (phase I) has reached production capacity of 2000 tons / year, and the second phase of the production line with an annual capacity of 3000 tons / year also started construction in November last year.

Industry insiders pointed out that although lithium hexafluorophosphate production enterprises are expanding capacity, due to the release of new supply in the industry for a long time, in the rapid growth of demand, there will be a mismatch between supply and demand and the gap between supply and demand is difficult to make up in the short term. Therefore, the market expects that although the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate has fallen recently, under the background of tight supply and demand, the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate will remain high for some time in the future.