With the rapid increase of the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, the demand for lithium carbonate continues to be strong. The price of battery grade lithium carbonate has exceeded 330000 yuan / ton, an increase of more than 25% over the end of last year.
Qinghai: the construction of a world-class Salt Lake industrial base will be accelerated in 2022
The seventh session of the 13th Qinghai Provincial People’s Congress was held in Xining on January 21. When xinchangxing, governor of Qinghai Province, made a government work report, he proposed that the main expected goal of Qinghai’s development in 2022 is to increase the regional GDP by about 5.5%. further, accelerating the construction of a world-class Salt Lake industrial base is the primary task of Qinghai Province in 2022.
According to the government work report, Qinghai will focus on improving the competitiveness of strategic emerging industries and improve the comprehensive efficiency of salt lake resource utilization by strengthening, extending and supplementing the chain. In order to achieve the goal of “expanding the scale of lithium industry, releasing the capacity of lithium carbonate and improving the level of lithium battery industry”, Qinghai will set up a salt lake industry development fund and introduce a number of high-tech leading enterprises to promote the strength of salt lake industry clusters.
the penetration rate of new energy vehicles continued to grow
lithium extraction from Salt Lake drives demand with high cost performance
China’s high-quality lithium resources are scarce, and China’s lithium concentrate mainly depends on import; Lepidolite is an important supplement to China’s lithium resources, but its future increment is limited. China’s salt lakes are rich in lithium resources. According to the statistics of the U.S. Geological Survey, by the end of 2018, China’s proven lithium resources reserves were about 7 million tons, accounting for about 13.21% of the world’s total reserves, ranking fourth in the world. Among them, salt lake lithium resources account for about 80% of the country’s resource reserves. At present, it is in the early stage of large-scale development, Qinghai’s salt lake brine lithium deposits account for more than half of China’s proven lithium resources.
Caixin securities issued a research report on December 27, 2021, which pointed out that as the core component of new energy vehicles, the demand for lithium batteries continues to increase under the background of the rapid increase of the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, which drives the continuous strong demand for lithium carbonate. As of January 20, the price of battery grade lithium carbonate had reached 332600 yuan / ton, an increase of more than 25% over the end of last year.
(photo source: Business Club)
At present, there are three mainstream processes for preparing lithium carbonate, namely spodumene calcination, mica lithium extraction and salt lake lithium extraction. The cost difference of the three preparation processes is great. The complete cost of lithium extraction by spodumene calcination is nearly 190000 yuan / ton. For the cost of extracting lithium from mica, if the enterprise has its own lithium mica ore, the complete cost of a single ton of lithium carbonate is about 40000-50000 yuan; If lithium mica ore needs to be purchased, the cost per ton needs to increase by 40000-50000 yuan to 80000-100000 yuan. at present, the cost of extracting lithium from Salt Lake by adsorption method per ton of lithium carbonate can be controlled at or below 30000 yuan. Compared with lithium extraction from spodumene and mica, lithium extraction from Salt Lake has cost advantages.
Salt Lake Lithium concept stocks performed well
On January 21, the major themes of A-Shares generally fell, the salt lake lithium extraction index rose against the market, and concept stocks such as Jinyuan Ep Co.Ltd(000546) , Zhejiang Xinhua Chemical Co.Ltd(603867) , Tibet Summit Resources Co.Ltd(600338) , Sinomach General Machinery Science & Technology Co.Ltd(600444) rose by more than 2%.
Statistics show that as of the closing on January 21, the market value of Salt Lake Lithium concept stocks A shares totaled 1.48 trillion. Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co.Ltd(000792) owns the mining right of about 3700 square kilometers of Chaerhan Salt Lake. Chaerhan Salt Lake is the largest soluble potassium magnesium salt deposit in China and one of the largest salt lakes in the world. The reserves of potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, lithium chloride and sodium chloride rank first in China. On January 12, the company disclosed on the interactive platform that the lithium precipitation unit of the recent 20000 ton project will be subject to single machine equipment commissioning, and some of its capacity has been released in 2021. In 2022, the capacity of Lanke lithium lithium carbonate will be 30000 tons.
zangge mining said on the interactive platform on October 30 last year that the wholly-owned subsidiary is mainly engaged in the exploration and development of lithium, potassium, boron and other resources in Salt Lake Brine by participating in the subscription of 51% equity of mamico mining invested and acquired by the Tibetan Youth Fund. It now holds the lithium and boron exploration Certificate in mamico Salt Lake mining area, Ali Gaize County, Tibet, with a mining area of 115.36 square kilometers.
Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) it is mentioned in the 2021 semi annual report that the company has lithium resources for three salt lake projects, including cauchari olaroz lithium salt lake in Argentina, Mariana lithium salt lake in Argentina and haixiliang lithium salt lake in Qinghai. The company said on the interactive platform on December 31, 2021 that the cauchari olaroz Salt Lake project in Argentina is expected to be put into operation in 2022.
After the sharp rise in 2021, salt lake lithium extraction concept stocks generally adjusted after the new year’s day. Data treasure statistics show that as of January 21, concept stocks have fallen by an average of 13.75% since January. Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co.Ltd(000792) , Tianqi Lithium Corporation(002466) , Keda Industrial Group Co.Ltd(600499) , Zangger mining, Sinomach General Machinery Science & Technology Co.Ltd(600444) and so on. Compared with the high point in the past year, the average pullback rate of concept stocks is 34.09%, of which Tibet Mineral Development Co.Ltd(000762) pullback rate is 50.18%.
From the perspective of capital, according to the rough calculation of the average transaction price in the range, northbound capital has increased its holdings of salt lake lithium extraction concept shares in reverse from January to now, with a total increase of about 4.5 billion yuan, of which Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) , Byd Company Limited(002594) , Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co.Ltd(603799) , Eve Energy Co.Ltd(300014) , Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co.Ltd(000792) , Keda Industrial Group Co.Ltd(600499) and other 6 shares have been increased by more than 100 million yuan. Lithium battery leader Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) ranked first with an increase of RMB 1.272 billion.
According to the disclosure of the performance forecast, the performance of Salt Lake Lithium concept stocks is good. According to the statistics of data treasure, Tibet Summit Resources Co.Ltd(600338) , Zangger mining, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co.Ltd(603799) , Chengdu Wintrue Holding Co.Ltd(002539) , Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co.Ltd(000792) the net profit of five stocks that have published performance forecasts has increased by more than 90%. Tibet Summit Resources Co.Ltd(600338) has the highest pre increase. The company expects the net profit to be RMB 700 million to RMB 900 million in 2021, with a year-on-year increase of 21.89 times to 28.43 times.
