China is predicted to
account for over 60% of the world‘s wet process separator production, with more
than 10 billion square meters capacity. The largest supplier in the country has
announced to build the largest production base, strengthening China’s leading
role in the new energy industry.
In
the past, global lithium battery separator markets are shared by Japan,
America, South Korea, and China mainly. However, China adopts a large sum of
investments in recent years for lithium battery manufacturing, which supports
the goal to become the leading nation in the new energy market.
In
2016, Shenzhen Senior Technology Material sold 120 million square meters of
dry-process separators, ranking first in China, followed by Cangzhou Mingzhu
Plastic and Xinxiang Zhongke. In 2016, the sales leader of wet-process
separator came to Shanghai Energy New Materials and it sold 100 million square
meters, with customers covering Samsung, LG, BYD, and CATL. In 2016, the top
three by wet-process separator sales in China was Shanghai Energy, Suzhou
GreenPower, and Foshan Jinhui Hi-tech Optoelectronic.
On
March 19, 2018, Shanghai Energy held a signing ceremony for its new materials
project in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province. Reportedly, this project, located in
Xishan Economic & Technological Development Zone with a total investment of
USD789.24 million, is aimed at constructing 16 imported fully automated
separator manufacturing lines, 40 coating lines and 5 imported
aluminium-plastic film production lines, and establishing a premium marketed
separator R&D centre. When the project is finished and put into operation,
Shanghai Energy will become the world's largest wet process separator producer.
Shanghai
Energy, founded in 2010, is mainly producing wet process separator and
functional coating separator for Li-ion battery. It has over 20 patents
regarding technologies for Li-ion battery separator, separator deformation
inspection equipment. Many of the indicators reach the international advanced
levels. Under the circumstance that many domestic separator producers have not
yet achieved mass production, Shanghai Energy is now running 6 production lines.
Meanwhile, it has 3 production bases respectively located in Shanghai, Dongguan
and Zhuhai, combined production capacity at 320 million m2/a. To date, Shanghai
Energy has established stable partnerships with many famous battery
manufacturers such as LG Chem, BYD and Guoxuan High-Tech and has become the
only certified supplier to Samsung SDI in China.
According
to market intelligence firm CCM, China's energy storage battery market
developed vigorously in recent years. In 2017, the output of energy storage
batteries increased by 13% YoY, and the corresponding output value was rising
up by 7% YoY. Though its future potential is predictable, the energy storage
battery market is still restricted by relevant policies, pricing, electricity
supply, among others. That is to say, energy storage batteries are still
applied in a small range of areas. Its production capacity and growth rate both
remain relatively small. Currently, the China-made energy storage battery is
mainly used in communication base station, user-side peak shaving, off-grid
power station, micro-grid, rail transit and UPS.
The
battery separator industry in China is showing an incredible growth currently.
This trend will lead very likely to a domination of this industry in the whole
separator industry in the near future.
Digital
electronic products take a huge part of the daily life of almost everyone
nowadays. Also, alternative energy experiences a high level of demand
throughout the world. These developments lead to the fast-growing Lithium-Ion battery
market, especially in China, because it is used a lot in the high-end digital
market as well as in the power battery market. Related to the growing Li-ion
battery market, the whole separator industry is seeing an increasing demand
worldwide, leading to a fast increase in this industry.
According
to CCM, China’s Li-ion battery separator industry will experience a huge change
in the new future, preferring the usage of wet process separators for
production instead of dry process separators. The market furthermore will be
mainly determined by a growth of the power market, the high-end digital market
as well as the trading.
About the article
The
information for this article comes from CCM, China’s leading market
intelligence provider for the fields of agriculture, chemicals, food and feed.
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