how should the layout be?The lithium battery industry has a huge crisis

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The lithium battery industry has a huge crisis, the industry has overcapacity, 18650 pack builder the industry will be restructured, for some lithium cathode materials, how should the layout be?

1. Basic situation of lithium battery electrolyte industry

Basic situation of lithium battery industry

Lithium battery is a kind of electrochemical energy storage device, battery manufacturing machine its application and development history has a long history, early lithium battery can use different metal lithium as a negative electrode, but because the charging learning process is easy to form dendrites, safety and difficult to be guaranteed, so the initial lithium battery to primary battery management. In the early 1990s, SONY successfully applied graphite as a negative electrode, and the lithium-ion battery system that can be charged and discharged multiple times officially began to be commercialized. Among chemical energy storage batteries, lithium batteries have the best comprehensive analysis performance, including providing energy density, power density, circular economy life and safety. At this stage, lithium batteries have gradually matured and applied to various electronic information products, power tools, transportation vehicles, energy storage and other fields.

In the first decade of lithium-ion battery development, li ion battery construction lithium-ion battery technology opened up new downstream applications, and Sanyo, Panasonic, SONY and other Japanese companies were in a monopoly position by virtue of their technological leadership and the perfection of the global market industry chain. From 2001 to 2010, the consumer electronics industry represented by mobile phones and MP3 players entered a period of rapid growth, driving consumer demand for lithium-ion batteries, during this period, the pace of technological innovation of Japanese companies slowed down, and there was a trend of technology flowing from Japanese companies to East Asian countries. Japanese lithium-ion batteries and lithium-ion batteries in the industrial chain began to be affected by South Korea and China. Since China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the processing capacity of the global manufacturing industry has gradually shifted to China, and the emergence of a number of promising Chinese lithium-based materials companies has also helped China to localize these four major materials, which are the core of China's lithium-ion battery industry. Between 2011 and 2019, as the growth of the consumer lithium-ion battery market slowed and shipments of smartphones and tablets declined, the power market became a new battleground for global lithium-ion battery companies. During this period, Chinese lithium-ion battery companies have also entered a period of rapid development, successfully entering the supply system to provide high-end products for downstream customers, and the global market share of our lithium-ion battery companies has increased significantly.

Table: Comparison of lithium-ion batteries with other secondary batteries

Lithium battery electrolyte industry basic situation

Lithium-ion batteries are mainly composed of electrolyte, diaphragm, positive electrode material and negative electrode material. Electrolyte is one of the four key materials for lithium battery manufacturing, is the medium for lithium ion migration and charge transfer, and is known as the "blood" of lithium batteries. As a carrier of lithium ions, the electrolyte transports lithium ions in the charge and discharge process, so it needs to have extremely high ionic conductivity and extremely low electronic conductivity. Lithium battery electrolyte is generally prepared by high purity organic solvent, electrolyte lithium salt and necessary additives in a certain proportion under certain conditions, which is the guarantee of lithium battery to obtain high voltage and high specific energy. Electrolyte requires high purity, moisture and acid content of lithium salts, solvents and additives, so raw material purification and environmental control become one of the difficulties in the production process of electrolyte.

Figure: Composition of electrolyte

The continuous occurrence and a series of side reactions in the process of battery cycle development will affect the stability of the circulation system of the research battery, and the stability of the circular economy is directly related to the capacity retention rate of the battery in the charge and discharge cycle. Therefore, in order to ensure a good quality capacity retention rate in China's multiple charge and discharge cycles, we need to analyze and improve the electrolyte by adding food additives. Electrolyte in the lithium battery cost is relatively low, but has a significant impact on its performance, electrolyte in the middle of the positive and negative electrode does not play an important role in conducting lithium ions, its performance is directly related to the lithium battery high voltage technical characteristics, charge and discharge rate, cycle life, safety and so on. The indicators of the electrolyte include conductivity, decomposition voltage, range of usable ambient temperature, safety, etc. The electrolyte with high conductivity can simultaneously conduct lithium ions more rapidly to improve the charging and discharging efficiency and bring a better charging and discharging performance. The electrolyte with high decomposition voltage can provide voltage cathode material to improve the energy density of production batteries. Electrolyte with a wide range of temperature data can be used to ensure the performance of lithium-ion batteries at high and low temperatures; The flammability of the electrolyte is the main problem affecting the safety of lithium-ion batteries, especially the learning power lithium-ion batteries, and the safe electrolyte is the key to the good social security and stability performance of lithium-ion batteries.

China's lithium battery electrolyte industry has experienced three stages: import dependence, domestic substitution and internationalization. With the continuous development, the performance of lithium battery electrolyte produced by Chinese enterprises has gradually improved, which has been widely recognized by the industry, and the domestic speed has steadily increased, and gradually moved to the international market.

Figure: Development history of China's lithium battery electrolyte industry

The difference in electrolyte products is mainly reflected in the formulation of regulators and the performance improvement of additives, especially with the improvement of safety, charge-discharge ratio, cycle life and high pressure, the complexity of the formulation and the type of additives will also increase. The additives and formulations are tailored to the specific needs of the customer and are adapted to other materials of the battery, so an in-depth understanding of the battery material system is required. At the same time, the research and development of new additives and their formulations is a trial and error process, especially the preparation of new additives not only needs to invest a lot of manpower and material resources, but also because of the high cost of reagents, long time, purification difficulty, so the research and development of new additives has the characteristics of large investment and risk.

Lithium battery electrolyte additives industry basic situation

Lithium battery electrolyte additives have a large number of products, small mass ratio in the electrolyte, high unit value, and can optimize various safety performance of the electrolyte through directional technology, such as electrical conductivity, flame retardant material performance, overcharge protection, rate performance, etc. Based on the different development characteristics of various types of batteries in China, as well as the continuous pursuit of energy, power, circulation, safety and other working performance of other batteries, the importance of additives is particularly important and prominent, and even we can say that the development and application of additives will become one of the core competitiveness issues of electrolyte enterprises.

The use of electrolyte additives is a low-cost, efficient way to improve battery cycle life and safety, with small amounts of additives increasing results. According to the principle of action of additives, additives can be divided into solid electrolyte interface film (SEI film) formation additives, flame retardant additives, high and low temperature additives, overcharge protection additives, additives to control water and HF(hydrofluoric acid) content in the electrolyte.

Table: Types and functions of electrolyte additives

At present, the commonly used electrolyte additives on the market such as VC, FEC, etc., have been widely used, and the preparation method of the product is also relatively open, but the purity of the product is high, because trace impurities may affect the performance of the lithium battery. At the same time, the production of additives is dangerous, and the requirements for safe production and environmental protection are high. The relevant management departments have strict requirements for the construction, production and operation of projects involving hazardous chemicals. In the context of national environmental protection limited production, the production qualification and investment of environmental protection equipment constitute an important barrier to the industry, and the overall domestic supply is limited.

2. Industry characteristics

(1) Electrolyte manufacturers have high requirements for supplier management

Highly customized electrolytes. On the one hand, the electrolyte should match the positive and negative electrode materials selected by the customer to meet the final performance requirements of the customer's lithium battery; On the other hand, the electrolyte should adapt to the development of 3C products such as new energy vehicles or lithium-ion batteries, and constantly adjust its performance and composition to meet the needs of smart products. The adaptability and development of lithium battery electrolyte determines its high degree of customization, so electrolyte manufacturers have put forward requirements for the research and development capabilities of upstream suppliers.

(2) Additive ingredients are the technical core of electrolyte enterprises.

Electrolyte is usually composed of high purity organic solvent, electrolyte lithium salt and functional additives required under certain conditions according to a certain proportion, of which organic solvent is the main component of electrolyte. Common organic solvents include Propylene carbonate (PC), vinyl carbonate (EC), diethyl carbonate (Dec), dimethyl carbonate (dMC), methyl carbonate (EMC) and lithium salt

At present, it is mainly concentrated on lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6). In general, the organic solvent and electrolyte lithium salt in the electrolyte are easy to analyze and imitate, and the additive composition is usually difficult to analyze, so it can be said that the additive composition is the technical core of the electrolyte enterprise. It is the key to improve safety (flame retardant additives, overcharge protection additives), circulation (film forming additives), power ratio (conductive additives), and low temperature performance (high and low temperature additives).

Global lithium battery as corporate giants such as Panasonic, SONY, Samsung SDI, LG Chemical and other company employees have a unique additive management technology, purchased electrolyte will then select the appropriate processing and modification, in order to better meet the needs of students in their own lithium battery manufacturing process. The ideal additive research has the following main characteristics: the amount is small, but can significantly improve the performance of some products of the battery; While improving the learning of a certain performance, we will not affect the performance of some other systems, and will not have side reactions with other related materials of the battery; Good compatibility with solvents; Cost-effective, safe, non-toxic or low toxicity.

3. Industrial chain situation

The upstream of lithium battery electrolyte additive industry is the basic chemical raw material manufacturing industry, and the downstream is the electrolyte production industry, as shown in the following figure:

① Development status of upstream industry

After years of development, China's basic chemical industry has established a relatively complete chemical industry system, which is closely related to fine chemical industry and has a strong supporting role for enterprises in the fine chemical industry. Complete variety of basic chemical products, rich production capacity and output. Under the influence of supply-side reform and stricter environmental control, raw material prices have fluctuated to a certain extent.

② Development status of downstream industry

As an important lithium-ion battery material, the electrolyte demand scenario mainly meets the needs of batteries, 3c electronic products and energy storage batteries, and the growth of the three will also promote the rapid expansion of electrolyte demand and the rapid release of the market. In the electricity market, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles in recent years, new energy vehicles have been launched

The installed capacity of lithium batteries is growing rapidly. At the same time, in the low-power market, with the rapid replacement of lithium batteries in the two-wheeled vehicle market and the rapid popularity of power tools, the lithium battery market has broad prospects in the long run. In the consumer market, with the development of 5G, it is expected to lead a new wave of mobile phone market growth and bring new growth to consumer lithium batteries and electrolytes. At present, the energy storage electrolyte market is small, and the country's great attention to new energy will bring the demand for large-scale energy storage technology, and drive the growth of demand for lithium battery electrolyte in the field of energy storage.

The main content of the residual value part of the report is as follows, the full text is about 10,000 words, please pay attention to the social public number far-vision consultation, further in-depth understanding of product details: