Analysis of lithium battery separator prices and electrolyte price trends
The main components of lithium batteries include four aspects: positive electrode material, negative electrode material, electrolyte, and separator. Because the four key materials of lithium batteries are in different raw material environments and market patterns, the prices and shipments of the major subdivided materials are also different. For the four major materials of lithium batteries, the linkage between price and billing period is like two sides of a ship. Analysis of Lithium Battery Separator Price In 2018, the price of the lithium battery wet-process separator industry has declined significantly. At the same time, a number of diaphragm diaphragm companies revealed that the release rate of diaphragm production capacity last year was not as fast as expected, and there will be a number of diaphragm projects that will be trial production this year. The domestic lithium battery diaphragm industry has a low capacity utilization rate, and its applications are mainly concentrated in low-end areas. High-end applications such as power lithium batteries mainly rely on imports. The price of dry-process diaphragms has dropped by about 70% compared with 3 years ago, and the gross profit rate has dropped to about 25%. Wet diaphragm technology is not yet mature. At present, the price of lithium battery separator manufactured by dry process is already very low, at around 5 yuan/square meter, the price will continue to fall in the future, and the current profit margin is already very low; the price of wet process separator is 10-12 yuan/square meter , There are almost no domestic companies that have large-scale production of diaphragms produced by wet process. At present, the gross profit rate of this business can reach 50%. Among the many factors that affect the gross profit margin of lithium battery separators, product prices are more obvious than operating costs. The sharp decline in the gross profit margin of many separator peers is obviously related to the decline in separator prices. At the beginning of January 2019, the mainstream price of 16μm lithium battery wet-process separator was between 3.3 yuan and 4.4 yuan per square meter, and by mid-to-late April it further fell to 3 yuan-3.6 yuan per square meter, and the lower limit was further dropped to 3.5 in early May. Yuan/square meter. If you take the year as the unit, this trend becomes more and more obvious. Research data shows that the current price of wet-process base film in China is around 2.2 yuan/㎡, the price of dry-process single-pull base film is about 1.6 yuan/m2, and the price of dry-process double-pull base film is about 1.3 yuan/㎡. With the gradual increase of the production capacity of each company, the scale effect is gradually highlighted, and the cost reduction will be beneficial to the subsequent market advancement. The advice given by the industry is that the decline in gross profit is an unstoppable trend at present, and companies should continue to improve and improve the production process of lithium battery separators, reduce product costs, and increase product yields to cope with price changes. In general: the downward trend of wet process diaphragm prices in 2018 is obvious, and the competition pattern of the diaphragm market in 2019 is hard to predict. According to the calculation of 1GWh power battery corresponding to 20 million square meters of dry diaphragm or 20 million square meters of wet diaphragm, it is estimated that the global demand for diaphragm in 2018 will be 1.468 billion square meters, and it is expected to exceed 3.3 billion square meters in 2020. Assuming that the unit price of diaphragm drops by an average of 10%-15% annually, the global diaphragm market will still be close to 10 billion in 2020. Analysis of the price trend of lithium battery electrolyte The price of lithium battery electrolyte fell due to the overcapacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate and the continuous price decline. Among them, the price of energy storage lithium battery electrolyte and power battery electrolyte fell sharply, and the two fell by 23% and 23% year-on-year respectively. 16.7%. In the next five years, new energy power batteries will show rapid growth. Under this background, the market demand for lithium battery electrolytes will be rapidly driven. The price of lithium battery electrolyte continues to fall. At present, lithium hexafluorophosphate has far met the needs of the market. With future market development, the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate will gradually decline. Additives meet existing requirements as a whole, including solvents, but still need to be improved. At present, iron-lithium battery electrolyte has covered all materials, including voltage requirements and application environment requirements, but there are still many problems in the middle, and these problems still need to be solved gradually. The above is the price analysis of lithium battery separators and lithium battery electrolyte in 2019. The price of lithium hexafluorophosphate has increased this month due to insufficient supply. We judge that the price of electrolyte will increase in the future due to the increase in raw material prices. Diaphragm: Prices have shown a gradual downward trend since the beginning of 2018. It has remained stable in the near term, and diaphragm prices have remained stable.
