Lithium battery copper foils are tightly priced and leading companies expand production

The strong downstream demand superimposed on the rise of upstream raw materials, and the tight price of lithium battery copper foil, stimulated the leading companies to continue to increase. A few days ago, Chaohua Technology (002288) and Yuchai Industrial Park jointly built an industrial base project (phase one) with an annual output of 100,000 tons of high-precision copper foil and 10 million high-frequency copper clad laminates. The project is expected to have a total investment of 12.26 billion yuan. The first phase of the 50,000-ton electronic copper foil project includes 20,000 tons of lithium-ion battery copper foil output. Chaohua Technology said that the company currently has sufficient orders for copper foil and its output utilization rate is at a high level. The company's copper foil prices will be adjusted accordingly to the market based on raw materials and downstream demand. Leading company Noord shares also stated that the company currently has full orders for lithium battery copper foil, domestic core customers are scheduled for the second quarter, and overseas customers are scheduled for September, and the order volume is far greater than the factory output. Driven by the continuous increase in downstream market demand, most of the domestic mainstream copper foil manufacturers are currently in full production, and the company has full orders. The high-quality output, especially the thinned products of 6m and below, is in short supply. Entering 2021, the price of copper foil for lithium batteries will continue to rise. The current price of 6m and 8m copper foil has exceeded 105,000 yuan/ton, 89,000 yuan/ton, and the overall supply is relatively tight. 'The current increase in copper prices has led to an increase in the raw material procurement costs of copper foil companies, and the company's capital is tight, so the price of lithium copper foil has also risen in the market.' Huang Guohe, general manager of Xinbirui, pointed out that the current increase in copper foil prices is mainly due to the increase in raw material prices and processing fees. The price increase is not obvious, so the current pressure on copper foil companies is more prominent. Under this circumstance, the lithium battery copper foil company is actively increasing its output to meet the large-scale expansion demand of the power lithium battery company and increase its market share. At present, lithium battery copper foil companies, including Nord shares, Chaohua Technology, Jiayuan Technology, Copper Crown Copper Foil, Warwick Copper Foil, Telford Technology, Zhongyi Technology, Xinbri, Longdian Huaxin and other lithium battery copper foil companies are actively expanding their production. . It is worth noting that although the above-mentioned companies are substantially expanding their copper foil production, from a short-term point of view, there is still room for domestic lithium battery copper foil prices to rise, and the supply of high-quality output is still tight. On the one hand, due to multiple factors such as the supply of production equipment, plant construction, equipment selection, technical precipitation, employee training, and production line debugging, the new production cycle of lithium battery copper foil is relatively long. The pace of production release on the supply side is slower than the growth rate on the demand side, which makes it difficult to make up for the short-term supply gap of high-quality copper foil. On the other hand, the performance improvement of power lithium battery output has accelerated the development of the trend of ultra-thin lithium battery copper foil for power. At present, 6m copper foil has become the mainstream of the power market, but the supply of high-quality output is in short supply. In addition, the head company is accelerating the introduction and upgrading of 4-5m ultra-thin copper foil, and will also put forward higher requirements for lithium battery copper foil companies in terms of performance improvement, production delivery and cost reduction. Industry insiders pointed out that whether the current tension between the supply and demand of lithium battery copper foil in China can be improved is mainly reflected in two aspects. One is the slowdown in downstream market demand growth, and the other is that upstream copper foil companies are accelerating the release of new production. It is expected that lithium battery copper foil companies will be released in the second half of the year. The overall output will be further increased and released, so that the domestic supply tension of lithium battery and copper foil will be eased.