Jiwei network news, recently, the United States General Motors disclosed that it has signed a "multi-year" cobalt supply agreement with mining giant Glencore. In addition to GM, the author has noticed that Tesla, Volkswagen, BYD and many other domestic and foreign car companies have recently strengthened their voice on the battery raw materials.
Behind the "binding" of upstream lithium battery mineral resources by car companies is the current demand for raw materials led by lithium carbonate continuing to be strong, and there will be a long-term shortage of mineral mining and supply in the future. At a time when the penetration rate of automobile electrification is increasing, for car companies, the impact of the lack of key raw materials for batteries may be more profound than the lack of cores last year.
A number of car companies competed for lithium mines
According to GM's disclosure information, the cobalt locked in by the "multi-year" cobalt agreement comes from Glencore Australia's Murrin Murrin nickel-cobalt mine and will be used for the positive electrode of its Ultium battery, which is used in GM's electric vehicles such as Chevrolet Solod, GMC Hummer, Cadillac LYRIQ and so on.
In order to achieve its goal of "producing one million electric vehicles in North America by the end of 2025", GM has signed supply agreements with a number of raw material companies and built a joint-venture battery plant. At present, GM and Pohang Chemical have decided to establish a joint venture plant in Quebec, Canada to produce cathode active materials, and signed a procurement agreement for lithium resources with CTR, a california geothermal lithium company, and the rare earth materials part has cooperated with GE to create an industrial chain, and has also locked in the alloy flakes and rare earth magnet production capacity of MP materials.
GM's "mine-locking" behavior is not unique. Tesla, the leader of electric vehicles, has signed lithium concentrate procurement agreements with Piedmont, Liontown and Core, and in terms of nickel resource reserves, Tesla has also finalized long-term supply agreements for mining companies such as BHP Billiton, Vale and Talon Metals.
According to CNBC, Tesla CEO Musk recently said on Twitter that Tesla may directly and large-scale involvement in lithium mining and refining business. And this isn't the first time Musk has come up with the idea of Tesla mining lithium on its own. In 2020, Tesla acquired the right to mine lithium in Nevada after a failed deal to acquire a lithium mining company. Tesla has also built a new lithium hydroxide refinery at its Texas plant, which received a License from Texas in April 2021 and will be operational by the end of 2022 with an annual capacity of 8,000 tons.
In addition, the European giant Volkswagen Group has also opened a model of direct procurement of raw materials, and recently signed memorandums of understanding with China's Huayou Cobalt and Qingshan Group to lock in nickel and cobalt supplies from Asia.
In addition, the author also noted that the recent increase in Shengxin lithium energy, BYD is the only strategic investor introduced. On the evening of March 22, Shengxin Lithium Energy issued an announcement that the company and BYD Co., Ltd. signed a "Conditionally Effective Strategic Cooperation Agreement" to introduce BYD as a strategic investor through targeted stock issuance.
For other manufacturers such as the introduction of BYD war investment and no battery factory, Zhou Yi, chairman of Shengxin Lithium Energy, told Jiwei Network at the recent shareholders' meeting, "The cooperation with BYD will help us to coordinate the industrial chain business and will further enhance the company's shareholder background; BYD's overseas influence will also help the company's overseas mine layout, which can lay a solid foundation for the company's further active expansion of business in the future." ”
It is not difficult to see that for lithium salt companies, the strong alliance with car companies helps to ensure the long-term stable shipment of their products in the future; at the same time, with the help of the overseas influence of car companies, it can also help them to lay out mineral resources overseas.
The mining and processing speed of lithium salts cannot keep up, and the shortage situation cannot be alleviated in a short period of time
With the vigorous development of the new energy automobile industry and the energy storage industry, the production capacity investment plan of car companies to "produce millions of new energy vehicles per year" continues to land, and the demand for lithium products will continue to be released.
In this context, taking the initiative to find minerals has also become an inevitable choice. Industry insiders pointed out that "now the order volume of new energy vehicle manufacturers is very fierce, but with the growth of volume, manufacturers have also found problems at the source of battery materials, whether it is a main engine factory or a battery factory, they will not care about the mine at all, because these are the upstream material manufacturers." ”
"At present, the price of lithium has reached the point of madness." Musk recently said on social media that Tesla may have to enter the field of large-scale mining and refining. He stressed that there is no shortage of lithium in the world at present, and the problem is that the speed of mining and refining cannot keep up.
Musk's "mining and refining speed can not keep up" problem has also been verified by upstream lithium salt processors. An executive of a listed company told Jiwei Network, "Tesla also asked us to sign a purchase agreement, and we also talked to them, but now we don't have excess production capacity for him, and in the future, our production capacity will be increased, and we will talk to them." In fact, our factory in Indonesia is actually aimed at the needs of overseas customers. ”
According to its disclosure, its current production capacity in 2022 has long been "rounded" by several large battery factories and OEMs. The above-mentioned person said, "We signed an annual agreement with these large customers, the price of the two sides negotiated to decide is based on the market price, their demand is very large, we have no amount to sell to small manufacturers or do retail." ”
Rather than being wrapped up in production capacity, the market is more worried that the shortage of lithium salt cannot be alleviated in a short period of time. In this regard, the manufacturer pointed out, "From last year to 2025, the manufacturers we cooperate with have planned the amount of new energy vehicles needed to sell each year, but in fact, we can't keep up with our planned production capacity." ”
At present, for lithium mining enterprises, in order to achieve capacity expansion, lithium mining enterprises are first and foremost to improve the self-sufficiency rate of lithium ore. However, for lithium mining companies, it takes time to increase the self-sufficiency rate of raw materials. The manufacturer believes that "it is not something that can be solved in one or two quarters, especially now when the price of lithium ore is at a high level, no one is willing to sell, and few people dare to buy." Because the company has high debt, it will not have the funds to expand production capacity for several years. Therefore, from last year to now, we have focused on resources, and we do not collect high prices. ”
To cope with the shortage of lithium salts in the market, accelerating the mining and processing speed of lithium ore is the key. "Now our goal is very clear, that is, to get these mines in hand up as soon as possible." Industry insiders pointed out.
(Proofreading/Andy)
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