5 major development characteristics of China lithium battery industry in 2021H1

In the first half of 2021, led by the ambitious goal of “carbon peak and carbon neutrality”, the national lithium-ion battery industry will achieve rapid growth, product quality and process technology will continue to improve, the trend of optical storage integration is obvious, the investment and financing market is active, and the industry is developing The overall trend is positive.

One is the rapid growth of industrial scale. According to calculations by industry associations and research institutions, the national output of lithium-ion batteries in the first half of the year exceeded 110GWh, an increase of more than 60% year-on-year. The output of upstream cathode materials, anode materials, separators, and electrolytes was 450,000 tons, 350,000 tons, and 3.4 billion square meters, respectively. Rice, 130,000 tons, an increase of more than 130%, the industry’s total output value in the first half of the year exceeded 240 billion yuan. Product exports have increased significantly. According to customs data, the total export volume of lithium-ion batteries in the first half of the year was 74.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 70%.

The second is the rapid update of product technology. The energy density of the square-shell lithium iron phosphate and soft-pack li-ion batteries mass-produced by mainstream enterprises has reached 160Wh/kg and 250Wh/kg respectively. Energy storage lithium-ion batteries generally achieve a cycle life of more than 5,000 times, and the cycle life of products from leading enterprises exceeds 10,000 times. New cobalt-free batteries and semi-solid batteries accelerate the pace of mass production. Battery safety has received increasing attention, and multiple protective measures such as temperature measurement, heat insulation, water cooling, heat conduction, exhaust, and pressure resistance have been promoted and applied in system-level fields.

The third is to accelerate the integration and development of optical storage terminals. While the sales of consumer-type lithium batteries have increased by more than 10% and the sales of power-type lithium batteries have exceeded 58GW, as “carbon peak and carbon neutrality” has become a broad consensus of the whole society, energy storage lithium batteries have ushered in explosive growth. “Photovoltaic power generation, battery energy storage, terminal applications” integrated and innovative energy electronics industry chain is gradually accelerating the pace of development, key enterprises in the fields of lithium battery, photovoltaic and other fields have strengthened cooperation, and the integrated construction of photovoltaic storage has accelerated. 15GWh, an increase of 260% year-on-year.

Fourth, the level of intelligent production continues to improve. The downstream market has continuously improved the requirements for lithium-ion battery consistency, yield, and safety, and high-cleanliness workshops, automated production lines, intelligent management systems, and remote control systems have become production standards. The overall cleanliness of key enterprise workshops has reached 10,000, and the cleanliness of key process workshops is above 1,000. A large number of semi-finished products are transferred using intelligent vehicles. The level of unmanned production is continuously improved. Battery traceability and process management systems have been widely established and applied.

Fifth, the industry investment and financing environment is loose. According to research institutes, in the first half of the year, key enterprises announced nearly 100 investment projects in the lithium-ion battery industry chain, with a total investment of more than 490 billion yuan, of which the investment in batteries and the four major materials exceeded 310 billion yuan and 180 billion yuan respectively. In the first half of the year, more than 20 lithium-ion battery industry chain companies applied for listing, with a total financing scale of nearly 24 billion yuan. The establishment of a new domestic and international dual-cycle pattern is accelerating. Leading domestic companies invest and build factories in key overseas areas, and international capital and companies strengthen cooperation with domestic companies through equity participation and long-term contracts.