Weekly Review: Fall Back on Raw Material Prices (3.20-3.26)

Market Highlights of the Week

lithium battery:

The pressure on the cost of battery cells has gradually increased. Recently, some power battery factories have begun to suggest price increases to vehicle manufacturers, but the actual transaction price has not changed for the time being. At present, it is still difficult to increase the price of power batteries, and more will be used to reduce pressure in disguise through supplementary agreements and other methods. The main cost is still to be absorbed by the battery cell factory itself.

Lithium iron phosphate (LFP):

The lithium iron phosphate market is mainly stable, and the company is still full of production and sales. Recently, the price of raw materials has stabilized, and iron-lithium has entered a rare stable period. The factory can do its best to produce and guarantee the supply. Judging from corporate feedback, expansion projects that were uncertain years ago have been implemented one after another, and the scale of LFP's new capacity may exceed expectations.

NCM Material:

This week, the domestic ternary material prices fell more significantly, mainly driven by the continued decline in the price of ternary precursors, downstream battery factories were afraid to fall and wait and see, and the market continued to be flat during the week. In terms of operating rate, the operating rate of domestic mainstream ternary materials companies continued to improve in March, and the TOP5 companies basically entered full production. Although the operating rate of the second and third tier companies was relatively low, the output continued to improve.

NCM precursors:

This week, the price of ternary precursors in China has fallen not small, and the price of ternary precursors of various models has fallen by nearly 10,000 yuan, mainly due to the accelerated decline of upstream sulfate materials. During the week, the price of nickel sulfate fell slightly to make up for the decline, while the price of cobalt sulfate fell sharply, causing a slight panic in the market sentiment. Precursor companies are worried that the subsequent price will continue to fall, and the willingness to stock up in the near future is not strong.

The anode market has performed well recently. Graphitization has become the neck of the anode manufacturers. Both large and small manufacturers are facing the current situation of insufficient graphitization capacity. It is expected that the first three quarters will be difficult to alleviate. The price of raw low-sulfur coke will increase by 200 yuan/ton this week, thus anode material factories are facing greater pressure on raw material costs. Big battery manufacturers are expected to face a tight supply of negative electrodes in the first half of the year.

Electrolyte:

Recently, the hot topic in the electrolyte market is still the old-fashioned shortage of raw materials. The tightness of VC has caused the price of iron-lithium electrolyte to exceed that of NCM material's; the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate has stabilized, and the mainstream transaction price is about 200,000 yuan/ton, and some high prices are 230,000 yuan. RMB/ton; the price of solvents does not fluctuate much. Electrolyte supply has become one of the shortcomings in the raw materials of battery cell manufacturers. It is expected that the electrolyte supply and demand pattern in the first half of the year will be difficult to change.

Separators:

This week, the domestic separator market continued to be in a tightly balanced state. The major separator companies maintained full capacity production, and the supply increase was limited in the short term. In terms of market negotiation prices, the price of the separator is stable at this stage, and there is no price adjustment plan for the time being. SEMCORP expects to complete 10 online coating production lines this year, and overseas customers are verifying the online coating of separator products.