With the rapid development of new energy vehicles, the supply of products in the power battery industry chain is in short supply, which leads to a sharp rise in prices, resulting in a “high light moment” for power battery recycling.
“Since last year, the recycling price of power batteries has risen sharply, and some ternary black powder materials have increased by nearly 70%. The sharp rise of battery recycling price is determined by the resource attribute of waste power batteries. Recently, the prices of key metals such as cobalt, lithium and nickel battery materials have continued to rise.” Shanghai Ganglian E-Commerce Holdings Co.Ltd(300226) new energy division power battery analyst Wang Xuelei told the Securities Daily that vehicle electrification has become an irreversible trend, the power battery recycling industry has huge development space, and the total market output value is expected to expand to 110 billion yuan in 2030.
On February 28, Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of industry and information technology, said at the press conference of the state information office that this year, we will focus on meeting the production needs of power batteries, moderately accelerate the development progress of China’s lithium, nickel and other resources, and crack down on unfair competition such as hoarding and raising prices.
This means that behind the hot development of new energy vehicles, the hype of the power battery industry chain will be gradually standardized.
power battery recycling encounters high price looting
It is understood that the consideration point of power battery recycling price mainly lies in the content of valuable metals such as nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium in the battery. Generally speaking, it should be recycled at a discount according to the market price of the above metals. However, at present, there has been an obvious inversion of discount coefficient in power battery recycling.
According to insiders, the discount coefficient of some batteries has risen to more than 100% from the lowest 60% last year. Among them, there are many “buyers” who rush for goods at high prices and shout out a discount coefficient of 115% or even 120%.
Lin Boqiang, President of the China Energy Policy Research Institute of Xiamen University, told the Securities Daily that the upside down of the discount coefficient is mainly related to the rise in the price of raw materials. Recycling used batteries is to get the raw materials. If the price of the latter rises rapidly, the recycling price will rise. The price of raw materials has risen rapidly. Even if they are recycled at the current high price, the recycling party has paid off.
Over the past year, the prices of upstream raw materials of power batteries, such as nickel, cobalt and lithium, have risen across the board.
According to the data of business society, nickel and cobalt increased by 20.47% and 80.59% respectively in 2021, and lithium carbonate increased by 432% in 2021.
As the prices of lithium, nickel, cobalt and other raw materials continue to rise, the battery recovery discount coefficient hangs upside down.
Mo Ke, a researcher at the real lithium Research Institute, told the Securities Daily that under the condition of low resource prices, the main purpose of recycling waste power batteries is echelon utilization; In the case of high resource prices, processing into resources and raw materials can also make profits, and more recycling enterprises will do so.
In this regard, Wang Xuelei stressed that the sharp rise in battery recycling price is also related to the supply and demand structure of the industry itself. The tide of scrapping power batteries has not yet arrived. At present, the total supply of waste lithium batteries is less than half of the recycling capacity, and there is a huge supply gap in the market. Industrial capital is still adding in a steady stream, superimposing the expectation of metal price rise, and the market’s scramble for supply has entered a white hot state. Some enterprises with inferior supply channels can’t grab the supply, so they can only grab the purchasing personnel.
Gem Co.Ltd(002340) recently replied on the public interactive platform that the metal price has increased recently, and the battery recycling price will rise accordingly. The company will appropriately raise the selling price of recycled battery recycling products to reduce the impact of rising raw material costs.
power battery recycling enterprises surge
According to the data of China Automobile Industry Association, in 2021, the sales of Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) vehicles in China completed 3521000, with a year-on-year increase of nearly 1.6 times, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years. At the same time, according to the prediction of China Automobile Association, the sales volume of Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) vehicles is expected to reach 5 million in 2022, with a year-on-year increase of 47%.
The development of new energy vehicle industry is in full swing, and power battery recycling enterprises also show explosive growth.
Tianyancha data show that there are more than 35000 “power battery recycling” related enterprises in China.
On February 28, Mianyang Fulin Precision Co.Ltd(300432) announced that it plans to build new high-pressure solid lithium iron phosphate cathode materials with an annual output of 200000 tons, including but not limited to lithium mine development, lithium salt production capacity construction, lithium battery recycling and reuse and other projects in promoting the comprehensive development and utilization of lithium resources.
On February 27, Ningbo Ronbay New Energy Technology Co.Ltd(688005) also announced that it would cooperate with Gem Co.Ltd(002340) to jointly build a strategic cooperation system based on the industrial chain of “nickel and cobalt resource exploitation – power battery recycling – ternary precursor manufacturing – ternary material manufacturing”, and establish long-term and close cooperation in the fields of power battery recycling, overseas nickel resource smelting, precursor product supply and marketing.
It is worth mentioning that in 2021, a number of enterprises have targeted the field of power battery recycling in advance. For example, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) announced in October last year that it plans to invest no more than 32 billion yuan to invest in the construction of Bangpu integrated battery material industrial park in Yichang, Hubei Province, including the recycling of waste battery materials.
In addition, Gotion High-Tech Co.Ltd(002074) announced in March last year that it planned to build a new power battery industry chain project in Hefei and build a production base including upstream raw materials and battery recycling of power lithium battery, with a total investment of 12 billion yuan.
It is understood that Byd Company Limited(002594) currently has nearly 40 recycling points across the country among the vehicle enterprises that have earlier arranged power battery recycling.
On February 28, Dongguan Winnerway Industry Zone Ltd(000573) also said on the investor interaction platform that driven by the demand of the new energy lithium battery industry, the demand for cathode materials of power lithium battery continues to rise, and the prices of its core raw materials nickel, cobalt and lithium continue to rise. At present, the recycling of power lithium battery includes cascade utilization and resource recycling, and lithium battery recycling shows certain investment opportunities, However, at present, the concentration of the recycling industry is low, the sustainable recycling system is not perfect, the technical route of resource recycling is messy, and the input-output benefit is still low.
Wang Xuelei told reporters that from the internal perspective of the industry, it is mainly divided into three links: recycling, disassembly and smelting, of which the gross profit of smelting is the highest, followed by disassembly and recycling. In terms of industrial capital, whether we can grasp enough supply channels for a long time in the future will be the key to seize the opportunity of power battery recycling market.
As more and more enterprises enter the field of power battery recycling, relevant departments are further standardizing it.
The Ministry of industry and information technology stressed the need to improve the power battery recycling system, support efficient disassembly, recycling and other technical research, and constantly improve the recycling rate and resource utilization efficiency.
On February 10, the eight ministries and commissions also jointly issued the notice on accelerating the implementation plan of promoting the comprehensive utilization of industrial resources, which mentioned the standardized management of the comprehensive utilization of renewable resources in the waste power battery and waste mobile phone industry, and made separate guidance notes on improving the recycling system of waste power batteries.
“With the gradual release of new production capacity of upstream raw materials and the development of battery recycling industry, it is expected that the gap between supply and demand will gradually narrow in the future, the price of power battery will gradually stabilize, and the upside down of recycling discount coefficient is unsustainable.” Hu Qimu, chief researcher of Sinosteel Economic Research Institute, told reporters.
