On 9 May, 2016, Umicore announced the
intention of investing more than Euro 160 million in constructing a new project
for lithium nickel cobalt manganite (NCM), with the expectation of tripling its
production capacity by 2018. The company plans to adopt the most advanced
patent production technology in order to produce the best materials for
vehicles and will gradually release the new capacity from H2 2017.
Source: Bing
Chief of Umicore secondary battery material in China stated, “We are expanding
our production capacity to meet the explosive demand, coming especially from
China’s market, for hybrid power battery materials and battery electric vehicle
battery materials.
Since 2015, thanks to the explosive growth
in Chinese alternative energy vehicles and power batteries market, other global cathode materials giant players, besides Umicore, have also been accelerating
their market layout in China.
- In Nov. 2015, ECOPRO Co., Ltd. (ECOPRO) signed the memorandum of
understanding (MOU) with GEM Co., Ltd. (GEM) on lithium nickel cobalt aluminate
(NCA) cathode materials of Li-ion batteries (for vehicles). According to the
MOU, ECOPRO entrusts the production of NCA precursor for Samsung SDI Co., Ltd.
(Samsung SDI) to GEM.
ECOPRO’s major products include NCA, NCM, and other power battery materials.
The company is currently the second largest producer of NCA cathode material in
the world, and it is also Samsung SDI’s exclusive external supplier of NCA
cathode materials.
- In July 2015, GS Energy, a South Korean energy company, signed the Letter of
Cooperation Intent and the Cooperation Agreement on Market Development with
Beijing Easpring Material Technology Co., Ltd.
According to these agreements, GS
Energy and Easpring will carry out an all-round cooperation on NCA market
development, technology R&D, and industrialization. Currently, the two
parties has finished the research of domestic NCA market, and are now working
on the preliminary research and negotiation about establishing a Sino-foreign
joint venture.
- SK Group is also one of the cathode material companies that began deployment
in China quite early. SK Group has invested USD99.12 million (RMB640 million)
in constructing a company in Chongqing City of China, with a capacity of NCA
cathode materials of Li-ion batteries 9,600 t/a.
In March 2015, the first phase
of the project officially entered scale production, with a capacity of 2,400
t/a. The second phase, with 6 production lines, has started constructing in
2015 and is expected to reach completion by 2017.
The rapid expansion of global ternary
cathode materials giants in the Chinese market has been mainly attributed to
the rising of ternary battery market shares in China.
In Q1 2016, the Chinese
government stopped the use of ternary batteries in commercial vehicles and this
action not only bore the consequences of preventing the expansion of ternary
battery market, but it might also influence the benefit of ternary material
enterprises.
The chief of Umicore secondary battery material in China, however, said that
this would not bring much impact on Umicore’s business, as it is mainly engaged
in passenger vehicle business, which increases very fast. In addition, there is
a bright future for the application of ternary batteries in logistics vehicles,
6-8 meters long buses, etc.
He also believes that the fluctuation in the alternative energy vehicle
industry won’t last long, and that the market trend is promising in the long
run.
In the next few years, as the requirements for alternative energy vehicle
power batteries improve, the inefficient production capacity of middle and
low-end batteries may weed out for good, although the development of the
high-end battery capacity may still face bottleneck problems.
The chief also said, “We are very cautious
about our investment, we have done multipartite market verifications before we
made the strategic decision to expand our capacity, especially after we
confirmed the orders' intent from our major customers”
Alternative energy vehicle industry will continue its fast growth in the future
3-5 years, and will have significant demand for power battery and materials.
Currently, Umicore’s global capacity of materials is 20,000-30,000 t/a and will
at least triple in the future.
This article comes from China Li-ion Battery E-News 1605, CCM
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Tag: cathode materials Li-ion batteries