Weekly Review:Supply is tight, lithium salt prices soar (8.21-8.27)

Market Highlights of the Week

Lithium battery:

There was little change in the battery market this week, and the production capacity of leading companies continued to climb. CATL announced its semi-annual report. In the first half of the year, the company's power battery and energy storage system production capacity was 65.45Gwh, the output was 60.34Gwh, and the capacity utilization rate was 92.20%, maintaining full production and sales. The company is in the process of high-speed expansion, and it is expected that the company is expected to achieve an output of about 140GWh throughout the year; of which, energy storage revenue increased by 727.36% year-on-year. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will carry out the formulation of sodium-ion battery standards in due course to promote the full commercialization of sodium-ion batteries.

Lithium iron phosphate (LFP):

The lithium iron phosphate market continued to improve this week. The front-end raw material yellow phosphorus and phosphoric acid market rose steadily and darkly. The upstream iron phosphate market price rose, and the price of lithium carbonate continued to rise. The price of lithium iron phosphate rose again within the month. Months later, the continued upward trend of lithium carbonate will drive lithium iron phosphate to adjust to the rise; the energy storage market is temporarily operating steadily. In terms of price, the current mainstream power lithium iron phosphate quotation is between 53,000 and 58,000 yuan/ton, an increase of 15,000/ton from the same period last week.

Ternary Material:

The ternary materials market is temporarily stable this week. From a market perspective, the weakening of cobalt sulfate has led to a callback in the precursor price, while lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide have raised their quotations several times during the week. The ternary material market has temporarily maintained stable operation this week between the fluctuations and the other; currently supply of lithium salt bulk orders continues to decrease, and the price is higher than the mainstream transaction level. The subsequent adjustment of the ternary material quotation pays more attention to the price differentiation trend of precursors and lithium salts. In terms of price, the current price of nickel 55 type ternary material is between 165000-169000/ton; the price of NCM523 digital type ternary material is between 171000-175000/ton; the price of NCM811 type ternary material is between 220000-226000/ton.

NCM Precursor:

This week, the domestic ternary precursor market has corrected. Nickel sulfate fluctuated slightly and stabilized; cobalt salt products were affected by the weakness of the digital consumer market, downstream companies continued to give negative feedback to upstream, and cobalt sulfate continued to pull back; manganese sulfate temporarily maintained stable operation this week; cost pressure eased, and the focus of precursor companies' external quotations decreased, but still maintain normal production as a whole. In terms of price, the quotations of conventional type 523 ternary precursors this week ranged from 124000 to 129000/ton, a decrease of 2,000/ton from the same period last week; the quotation of cobalt sulfate was between 78000 to 83,000/ton, compared with the same period last week. Decrease by 1000/ton; nickel sulfate quotation is between 37,000 and 38,000/ton, down 500/ton from the same period last week; manganese sulfate is between 8700 and 9200 million/ton.

Lithium Carbonate:
Due to the gradual release of production capacity expansion by downstream lithium iron phosphate and other cathode material companies, downstream demand continues to increase, the tightness of lithium carbonate supply has intensified, and the tight supply situation cannot be alleviated in the short term, resulting in the recent soaring price of lithium carbonate. At present, the price of lithium carbonate has basically returned to the state of one price per day. The prices of various manufacturers are firm, and the reluctance to sell is obvious, and the price of lithium carbonate will continue to rise.

In August, the supply of domestic anode materials was further tightened. The main reason was that the graphitization capacity in Inner Mongolia was compressed by about 20% under the influence of power restrictions. However, the market demand for power batteries continued to rise, and the pressure of small and medium-sized battery manufacturers to maintain supply was further increased. In the short term, the supply of anode materials will continue to be tight. The price of negative electrode raw materials remained stable at a high level. In addition, the shipments and prices of some domestic coal-based needle coke companies are not very optimistic, and the enthusiasm for subsequent operations is not high. It is expected that the negative electrode material market will continue this month in September, and the tight supply situation will continue.

Electrolyte:

This week, the market price of some electrolyte manufacturers continued to increase to 110000-120000 yuan. Yongtai additives continue to ship. Because there is no customer concern, the market quotation is relatively high. The market outlook is expected that Yongtai's output will accelerate and it is expected to reach 300-400 tons in October. The slightly eased supply of additive VC is expected to increase the production volume of electrolyte and enlarge the trend of shortage of lithium salt. This week, Tianci issued a large-scale hexafluoroexpansion announcement, but it is expected that the hexafluorocarbons of Tianci, Dodo, Xintai and Yongtai can be put into production one after another around the end of the year. The volume of electrolyte is expected to continue to amplify the demand for solvents, but Shida’s overhaul will continue until mid-September. Although Hualu Hengsheng is put into production, the industrial-grade increase will not have an impact on the battery-grade market, so it will affect the major manufacturers of the solvent market. The short-term electrolyte market remains high and stable.

Separators:

This week, the overall domestic separator market has not changed much. The major separator companies have maintained full production operations, and the separator market continues to be in a tight balance between supply and demand. It is expected that in the second half of the year, domestic separator prices will continue to show a steady and small increase. The price of separator orders from major battery manufacturers is expected to remain stable, and the price of small orders may face an increase. The 2021 semi-annual report released by SEMCORP shares shows that the company achieved operating income of 3.394 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 135.58%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 1.050 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 226.76%.