The position of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) in the industrial chain and the distribution pattern of global lithium resources make it impossible for the company to obtain a dominant position in the upstream. However, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) still didn’t give up.
After competing with Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) for the Canadian Millennium lithium industry, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) once again distributed lithium resources.
In February 14th, official account No. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) , recently, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) subsidiary Sichuan new energy resources Co., Ltd. and Ganzi investment group, Yibin Sanjiang Huida company, Sichuan Tianfu mineral company signed a joint venture agreement in Chengdu.
According to the agreement, on the premise of meeting the national strategic mineral security, all parties will carry out all-round cooperation, accelerate the exploration and development of lithium resources in the province, increase the supply of lithium resources, promote comprehensive utilization in a scientific and orderly manner, promote the coordinated development of the whole industrial chain of new energy, and provide important support for the development of one hundred billion power battery industry in Sichuan Province.
Among them, Ganzi investment group and Yibin Sanjiang Huida company belong to the state-owned assets of the two places, and Sichuan Tianfu Mining Company is related to Sichuan natural resources investment group.
However, the known lithium resources in Ganzi Prefecture have been well-known, and what resources will the cooperation of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) correspond to?
there are still lithium “cakes” to be distributed in Western Sichuan
According to the Earth Resources Utilization Report of China Geological Survey, China’s hard rock lithium deposits are mainly distributed in Sichuan, Jiangxi and other places.
Among them, Sichuan is one of the provinces with the most abundant spodumene deposits in China, with resource reserves of 760000 tons, followed by Jiangxi and Hunan, with resource reserves of 342000 tons and 165100 tons respectively.
However, the overall development level of lithium mines in Sichuan is still low. At present, there are only Ganzi methylka and ABA yelonggou mines in Sichuan.
Last year, Sinolink Securities Co.Ltd(600109) comprehensively combed the local lithium resources. There are mainly 6 known lithium mines in Ganzi. The mining rights are vein 134 of Kangding methylka spodumene mining area, Cuola spodumene mine in Yajiang County and lanongba lithium mine in Yajiang County, which have been vested.
At the end of 2019, when Ganzi economic and Information Technology Bureau made a request to “accelerate the development of lithium resources in methylka area”, it pointed out that “realize the resumption and operation of Rongda lithium industry. Supervise and guide Rongda lithium industry to complete the project procedures such as land use and environmental protection, sign and establish the construction of lithium resource development and beneficiation plant, and put into operation the phase I project of lithium salt plant invested in Chenggan Industrial Park.” In addition, urge Tianqi Lithium Corporation(002466) to speed up the development; Actively negotiate with Yajiang snowway company to speed up the development of snowway lithium mine. Rongda lithium, Tianqi Lithium Corporation(002466) and Yajiang snowway are the owners of the above lithium mining rights.
In addition, there are Yajiang shaotangou, Yajiang Murong lithium mine and No. 3 vein in maijitan mining area in Ganzi, which are in the exploration stage.
Among them, the known ore reserves of vein 3 in mckitan mining area are the largest, equivalent to 885500 tons of lithium carbonate, which is twice that of vein 134 in methylka.
It should be pointed out that before Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) entered the bureau this time, relevant local policy guidelines have been laid down in Sichuan.
According to the overall plan of mineral resources in Sichuan Province (2021-2025), “the production capacity structure of some traditional minerals needs to be optimized and adjusted urgently. Due to the short industrial chain, the resource advantages of lithium ore, graphite and fiber basalt have not been fully reflected.” “Focus on strengthening the exploration, development and utilization of rare metals and other minerals in the region, optimize the setting of lithium mining rights in Western Sichuan, promote the large-scale, intensive and green development and utilization of lithium resources in methylka and Korin areas… Orderly promote the construction of national lithium resource base.”
Among them, two lithium mines, Sichuan methylka and Sichuan ABA Kerin, are listed as national key exploration areas.
In addition to the state-owned assets of Ganzi and Yibin, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) the signing partners also include Sichuan Tianfu Mining Company. The company has few reports, but from the corresponding representatives attending the signing ceremony, it may have a relationship with Sichuan natural resources investment group.
Sichuan natural resources investment group, with a registered capital of 15 billion yuan, was just established at the end of 2021. According to Sichuan observation, the group’s main businesses are mineral resource exploration and development, land and space development and ecological restoration, capital investment and operation, natural resource utilization, protection and R & D, etc. the Sichuan Provincial Department of natural resources performs the responsibilities of the investor according to the authorization of the provincial government, and plans to build it into a leading enterprise in the field of natural resources.
To sum up, on the one hand, there are still lithium resources in Sichuan that have not been developed. On the other hand, the partner of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) has a strong background. Although it is impossible to determine the form of subsequent companies participating in the development of local lithium resources, this signing has won at least one “ticket” for the company and provided some support for the subsequent supply of raw materials.
development or acceleration of lithium resources in China
Considering the long cycle from exploration to exploitation, project construction and capacity release, the signing of the above cooperation agreement is not expected to bring actual spodumene output in the medium and short term.
However, in terms of the supply pattern of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) company and China’s spodumene, it is an inevitable choice to layout and accelerate the development of lithium resources in Western Sichuan.
Let’s start with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) . At the end of July 2021, the company took the lead in releasing sodium ion batteries. On February 13, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) said through the interactive platform that the company’s battery system adopts ternary lithium-ion battery, lithium iron phosphate battery and other routes. At the same time, the company has started the industrialization layout of sodium ion battery, and it is expected to form a basic industrial chain in 2023.
However, in terms of product supply at this stage, lithium-ion batteries cannot be replaced.
Yibin is the production base with the largest planned capacity of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) . After investing 10 billion yuan to start the construction of phase I and phase II of Yibin power battery project in 2019, the company determined the subsequent expansion projects in December 2020, February 2021 and December 2021 respectively. At present, the Yibin times power battery manufacturing base project has been planned to phase 10.
Coupled with the huge capacity expansion plan of other production bases of the company, the consumption of lithium salt is bound to increase significantly.
In contrast, China’s lithium salt products rebounded strongly in 2021, and battery grade lithium carbonate increased from 52000 yuan / ton at the beginning of the year to the latest 402000 yuan / ton, which directly led to the increase in the cost of materials such as cathode materials and electrolyte, and transmitted to the downstream power battery manufacturing.
It is also under the above background that Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) as the downstream leader did not hesitate to fight with the upstream leader Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) , and rarely participated in the equity competition of Millennium lithium industry in Canada.
The key reason for the sharp rise in the price of lithium salt is not only the relationship between supply and demand, but also the cost driven impact of insufficient supply elasticity of lithium ore.
The development report of China’s lithium industry in 2021 issued by the lithium industry branch of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association points out that although China’s lithium resources are in the forefront of the world and relatively rich in resource varieties, compared with China’s lithium salt production capacity, lithium raw materials are highly dependent on foreign countries, and 65% of lithium raw materials need to be imported.
Superimposed on the huge demand increment brought by the rapid increase of Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) automobile penetration in the past two years, the contradiction between supply and demand of lithium salt products in China is prominent.
At present, due to the small-scale development of lithium concentrate in Sichuan and the difficulty of local development of lithium concentrate, it seems that the construction of lithium concentrate in Azi dam is too small, and the main problem of lithium ore exploration in China is that the supply of lithium concentrate is too small
The most direct way to reduce external dependence is to increase China’s lithium resource supply, strengthen the development of lithium mines in Western Sichuan and improve the utilization rate of Qinghai salt lake resources.
The Ministry of industry and information technology also recently pointed out that “we should comprehensively improve the guarantee capacity of key resources, strengthen communication and coordination with provinces and cities such as Qinghai, Sichuan and Jiangxi, and promote the acceleration of the development of lithium resources in China.”
In this way, the cooperation of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) can also be regarded as “catching up with an early set”.
