How to guard the security of the lithium supply chain in the new cycle?

As one of the keys to achieving the goal of "carbon neutrality", the wave of electrification is sweeping, and new energy vehicles and power batteries are booming at an unprecedented speed.
On December 20, Zhang Yu, secretary-general of the Power Battery Application Branch of the China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association, mentioned at the 7th International Summit on Power Battery Applications (CBIS2022) that in 2022, global economic growth will be significantly slowed down by multiple factors. The new energy vehicle and power battery industry chain is one of the few industries that continues to grow. The sudden emergence of new energy vehicles has also brought about the prosperity and development of the power battery industry chain.
During the meeting, a number of industry practitioners and heads of lithium battery industry chain enterprises affirmed the current prosperity of the new energy vehicle and power battery industries, and relevant participants are embracing the new cycle of lithium batteries.
Liu Yanlong, secretary-general of the sixth council of the China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association, said that after more than ten years of development of the new energy vehicle industry in China, at this stage, China has come to the forefront of the world in the fields of power batteries, lithium battery materials, lithium battery equipment and other fields, and China's new energy vehicle production and sales have ranked first in the world for seven consecutive years.
According to data from the Power Battery Application Branch, from January to November this year, the sales of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market have reached 6.067 million units, a year-on-year increase of 100.6%, and the penetration rate of new cars has reached 25%, while the sales of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market this year have exceeded 6.5 million units without suspense, far exceeding previous expectations.
Driven by the hot sales of new energy vehicles and the growth of bicycle power, the installed capacity of power batteries has risen. From January to November this year, the installed capacity of power batteries in the Chinese market was about 265.6GWh, a year-on-year increase of 98.2%.
With the gradual maturity of China's lithium battery industry and the continuous growth of scale, the concentration of the power battery market continues to reach a new high. In the first 11 months of this year, the top 10 companies in the Chinese market accounted for 94.6% of the market. Globally, among the top ten companies, Chinese enterprises occupy 6 seats, and their share has further increased, and the influence and participation of Chinese enterprises in the global market have steadily increased.
Since the beginning of this year, the new batteries developed by domestic enterprises are constantly refreshing industry records, such as Kirin batteries, large cylindrical batteries, dragon scale armor batteries, CTB batteries, building block batteries, sodium-ion batteries, solid-liquid hybrid semi-solid batteries, etc. have appeared or applied one after another, alleviating consumers' anxiety about the range, charging, safety and cost of electric vehicles, continuing to promote the high-quality development of the industry, and at the same time promoting the rapid development of the global new energy vehicle industry.
At the same time, the power and energy storage battery industry is becoming an advantageous industry for China's industrial and technological export to the world. In recent years, outstanding enterprises in the domestic industrial chain have actively gone abroad, laid out the global market, and served international customers. However, the lithium battery industry chain is also facing a severe test, which makes the industry need to pay more attention to the supply chain security of power batteries in the new environment.
Liu Yanlong mentioned that the development of the industrial chain this year is also facing some severe challenges, supply chain shortages, battery material prices fluctuating sharply, etc. have also brought great uncertainty to the healthy development of the industry. Since last year, the price of lithium battery industry chain has risen, in fact, it is mainly due to the growth of downstream demand beyond expectations, and most battery and material companies have not predicted this growth rate. However, with the gradual release of production capacity layout, we expect that the price of related materials will fall somewhat from next year, and slowly become reasonable.
Wu Feng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chairman of the expert committee of the power battery application branch, said that based on the prediction of the development prospects of the electric vehicle and energy storage industries, the development of the global lithium battery industry is facing the challenges of tight strategic resources and supply chain security. Therefore, the construction of a new electrochemical system with non-strategic resource constraints as an important complement has also been put on the agenda. At the same time, Wu Feng also called on global automotive and lithium battery industry enterprises to strengthen technological innovation and cooperation, strengthen the exchange and interaction of common basic technologies, promote the reform of the global automotive and energy system, and help achieve the goal of carbon neutrality as soon as possible.
Gao Yanmin, former director of the Department of Consumer Goods Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out that the road to research and development of key technologies of power batteries is still tortuous and long, and it is necessary to study and explore the collaborative innovation development model of the industry, further strengthen the joint research and development of key technologies, materials and core components, give play to the role of all links of the industrial chain, overcome difficulties through innovative development models, and jointly study and solve common problems. At the same time, strengthen the formulation of relevant standards and complete testing capacity building, and promote the continuous improvement of the technical level of all links of the entire industry chain.