This week, the Chilean Ministry of Mines and Energy said that it has authorized lithium mining rights to BYD, it is reported that Chile issued five lithium mining rights to foreign and domestic companies, the total contract will be worth 121 million US dollars, has obtained the mining rights is China's largest new energy vehicle company BYD, the other is the Chilean local enterprise Servicios y Operaciones Mineras del Norte.
BYD and Servicios will each receive 80,000 tons of lithium mining licenses, with Chile being the world's second-largest producer of lithium, after Australia, accounting for 32% of the global market. In recent years, the global automotive industry is facing rapid transformation, the momentum of new energy vehicle companies is fierce, the major traditional car companies have also launched their own new energy brands, according to the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, in December the retail sales of new energy passenger cars reached 475,000 units, the growth momentum is still rapid, an increase of 128.8% year-on-year, an increase of 25.4% month-on-month. Last year, the retail sales of new energy passenger cars were 2.989 million units, an increase of 169.1% year-on-year. As China's dominance in the global lithium industry is increasing, the demand for batteries in the sales of electric vehicles is increasing, and the demand for lithium ore is also greatly increased.
According to the contract BYD has 7 years to layout the mining project, and then there will be 20 years to extract lithium ore, in the past year, the most affected by the new energy "dividend" is not BYD, as the sales champion of new energy manufacturers last year, BYD in pure electricity and plug-and-mix two-way force, not only ahead of the second place Advantage is obvious, but also the top five in the year-on-year growth rate is the largest. BYD also became popular across the board with new energy, squeezing into the top 10 monthly sales and the top 15 annual sales for the first time. Therefore, according to their strategic layout many years ago, having a considerable reserve of lithium ore resources will greatly help BYD's development, BYD has been very competitive in the field of batteries, after obtaining the Chilean lithium mining rights, it will help BYD's rapid layout in the upstream, and form a strategic advantage for other new energy vehicle companies.
According to the S&P Global Market Intelligence Study, China Mining and Battery has won bids for five phases of development lithium projects valued at $1.58 billion, excluding offtake and royalty agreements. In October 2021, China's lithium carbonate imports increased by 193.5% month-on-month and 59.8% year-on-year to 10.48 billion tons. The report shows that its lithium hydroxide imports increased by 109% month-on-month, an increase of 116 times year-on-year to 829 million tons in the same period.