Abstract: According to Zhao Xiaoyong, chairman of Saidmei, Saidmei's physical recovery technology has been industrialized, and under the severe situation that the price of lithium carbonate has returned from 600,000 yuan/ton to 100,000 yuan/ton, in 2023, the company will ensure normal operation and achieve hundreds of millions of yuan in revenue, and the upstream and downstream customers are relatively full, and the current orders are relatively sufficient.
Said Mei at CIBF 2024
Battery 100 - Battery Network, April 29 (Zhang Qian Chongqing report) According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the first quarter, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China were 2.115 million and 2.09 million respectively, an increase of 28.2% and 31.8% year-on-year respectively, and the market share reached 31.1%.
According to the regulations of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, passenger car manufacturers have implemented an 8-year or 120,000-kilometer warranty for core components such as batteries since 2016, and the first batch of batteries will usher in the scrapping stage in 2024.
In addition, in April this year, the Ministry of Commerce and other 14 departments jointly issued the "Action Plan for Promoting the Trade-in of Consumer Goods" to organize the trade-in of automobiles and home appliances and the "renewal" of home decoration, kitchen and bathroom nationwide. Xu Xingfeng, director of the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in terms of automobiles, it is encouraged to convert old cars with high energy consumption, high emissions, long service life and potential safety hazards into new energy vehicles or energy-saving vehicles.
Zhao Xiaoyong, chairman of Saidmei
Driven by the tide of power battery scrapping and the "trade-in" policy, the power battery recycling market has broad development prospects. On April 28, at CIBF 2024, Zhao Xiaoyong, chairman of Beijing Saidmei Resource Recycling Research Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Saidmei), said in an exchange with the battery network that this industry is not only a new energy industry, but also an environmental protection industry and a rigid demand of the lithium battery recycling industry.
The 100-billion-scale industry is booming, and the physical method of recycling is good
In terms of the market, according to the statistics of the battery network, since 2024, the power battery recycling track has shown a busy scene, and the number of enterprises in the layout of battery recycling has increased rapidly, including battery companies, material companies, vehicle companies, traditional energy-saving and environmental protection enterprises and other categories of enterprises have laid out the track.
According to EVTank, by 2030, with a large number of automotive power batteries entering the recycling link, China's lithium-ion battery recycling volume will reach 6.028 million tons, and its market size will exceed 100 billion yuan.
Similarly, Zhao Xiaoyong also said that with the increase in the number of new energy vehicles and production and sales, the number of power battery retirements is also increasing year by year, and the prospects of the recycling industry are relatively bright, and the recycling industry chain can reach hundreds of billions by 2030, and by 2040, it can exceed hundreds of billions of output value.
Zhao Xiaoyong analysis said that the power battery recycling market outbreak is gradually coming, and it is expected that 2025~2027 will be a small peak, mainly in 2018~2020, the battery installed on the car will gradually enter the retirement and scrapping period after 5~8 years of use; in addition, in 2020 ~ 2021, nearly 20 million vehicles will be retired through about 5 to 8 years of use; and the energy storage market in the last one or two years began to install two or three hundred G watt batteries, through 8 to 10 years of use, is also gradually retreating; it is expected that 2030 and 2032 will be a real peak, about every year the recycling industry chain will reach an output value of 1000~2000 billion.
"As the price of lithium carbonate falls back to about 100,000, the future lithium iron phosphate recycling market space will be further opened, especially for physical recycling enterprises. Zhao Xiaoyong explained, because of the physical method itself has the advantages of environmental protection and low cost, so that the price of lithium carbonate back to the normal price, within 100,000 yuan/ton, as long as there is a certain production capacity, it can ensure that the recycling of waste lithium iron phosphate batteries has economy, and lithium iron phosphate batteries account for more than 70% of the power battery market, accounting for 100% of energy storage, so it is a great benefit to physical recycling enterprises.
At the same time, Zhao Xiaoyong also pointed out that this is a negative for wet recycling enterprises, because at the price of lithium carbonate, wet recycling enterprises are difficult to guarantee due to the long process flow, large investment, and treatment facilities can often only be laid out in special chemical parks, resulting in a further increase in the logistics cost of waste battery recycling, and the economy of recycling lithium iron phosphate is difficult to guarantee.
According to the data, Saidmei is a scientific and technological innovation enterprise focusing on the cascade utilization and recycling of lithium batteries, and its products are mainly used in energy storage, low-speed electric vehicles, backup power supply, lithium-ion battery cathode and anode materials and other fields. The company is the pioneer and pioneer of the "physical method" recycling technology (precise dismantling + material repair) in China, the second batch of comprehensive recycling enterprises in line with the "Industry Standard Conditions for the Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles", and one of the 15 enterprises with the double white list qualification of recycling and cascade utilization announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
With material repair as the main production capacity, accounting for 70%~80% of the output value, the company has improved the business scale of high gross profit and truly solved the problem of no longer ending the dividend.
According to Zhao Xiaoyong, Saidmei's physical recovery technology has been industrialized, and under the severe situation that the price of lithium carbonate has returned from 600,000 yuan/ton to 100,000 yuan/ton, in 2023, the company will ensure normal operation and achieve hundreds of millions of yuan in revenue, and the upstream and downstream customers are relatively full, and the current orders are relatively sufficient. At present, the company's Tianjin Phase I demonstration project is in full operation, with an annual dismantling capacity of 12,000 tons of battery packs, and the current Tianjin Phase I production line is basically close to full production, and it is expected that Tianjin Phase I will achieve a revenue of 300 million to 400 million yuan in 2024. The company also plans to build new factories in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Anhui and other places, and strive to have two to three factories put into operation by the end of the year.
Starting from 2024, Saidmei will begin to go out of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and build factories across the country. Zhao Xiaoyong revealed that the company strives to achieve the layout of 8 to 10 physical recycling plants in the country within two to three years, realize nearby recycling, nearby dismantling, and nearby disposal, and rely on the 600 recycling outlets of scrapped automobile dismantling plants cooperated by various regional factories, and then radiate to thousands of 4S shops and maintenance shops of new energy vehicles, forming a lithium battery recycling network throughout the country.
Is it a fallacy that the fire of the echelon battery? Laws and regulations should be improved as soon as possible!
The renewable resource recycling industry is gaining momentum, but most of the upstream suppliers are retail recyclers. The battery network noted that since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the first batch of power battery recycling "white list" enterprises in 2018, up to now, the number of "white list" enterprises announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has expanded to 156, but in fact, although the "white list" enterprises have been officially recognized, but it is not a mandatory policy, so it has not been completely selected by the market.
Zhao Xiaoyong pointed out that the current problem is only for wet recycling enterprises, and there is no channel of their own, mainly through some small and medium-sized traders in the upstream, or black powder enterprises, to provide raw materials for wet recycling. Formal and large-scale physical recycling or wet recycling enterprises are all from large terminal enterprises, such as car companies, battery companies, scrapped vehicle dismantling enterprises, and new energy vehicle operation enterprises to recycle batteries.
At present, in terms of the market, there are too many battery models and specifications, and it is difficult to improve the degree of automation of recycling and dismantling in recycling. In addition, the current battery pack is glued, which is difficult to disassemble, and the sol agent is not environmentally friendly, which will also cause pollution risks.
In terms of technology, at present, the layout of wet battery recycling enterprises in the country is too much and too chaotic, relatively concentrated, and strong irritants such as acid and alkali are added in the treatment process, which more or less have pollution risks, so they must be strictly controlled.
Zhao Xiaoyong called on more environmentally friendly physical recycling companies to go to the front and publicize and implement more.
In order to better promote the high-quality development of the battery recycling industry, Zhao Xiaoyong suggested that the state should take the lead in doing several aspects of work: one is to gradually unify the specifications and models of the battery from the source to facilitate the automation of dismantling and recycling later; second, further develop the automatic dismantling technology, including the dismantling of the battery pack, the dismantling of the module, and the automatic and accurate dismantling technology of the monomer; third, for the dismantled materials, whether it is material repair or hydrometallurgy, the process level needs to be further improved.
In terms of battery recycling applications, there is news in the market that in recent years, the news of battery car battery fire protection has been coming, and most of these batteries are retired from new energy vehicles. In this regard, Zhao Xiaoyong said, "The so-called battery car fire, blame the echelon battery, is actually a fallacy, but also an unrigorous statement." ”
Zhao Xiaoyong added that in fact, new batteries can also catch fire and explode, because the cycle of new batteries is not thorough, but sometimes more dangerous. On the one hand, if consumers have poor riding habits, heavy objects, collisions, etc., there is too much damage to the battery, and there will also be a risk of fire and explosion. On the other hand, some battery factories now have B products and C products that are sold out, which will also be more likely to cause accidents, and it will be safer only after strict control. Of course, it is not excluded that a small number of criminals use some relatively poor echelon batteries on two-wheeled vehicles. This is a rat poop that spoils a pot of soup and plays some bad roles.
Zhao Xiaoyong suggested that as a ladder battery manufacturer, the safety of battery echelon utilization needs to be fully inspected and screened, and recycling companies should strictly control the quality and safety of this echelon battery, put safety in the first place, carry out safety publicity and implementation from top to bottom, formulate strict safety measures and systems, and strictly implement safety management standards.
At the same time, Zhao Xiaoyong also pointed out that regarding laws and regulations, the mainland should increase the pace in the field of battery recycling, and the laws and regulations should be improved as soon as possible, which is conducive to the healthy development of the industry. "The overseas power battery recycling market is not as big as China's, but in terms of policies, laws and regulations, it emphasizes the system of who is responsible for the production and who consumes and who pays. Now the EU recycles this waste battery, and it is up to consumers or car companies to pay. Japan stipulates that recycling is mainly due to the design of front-end products that are conducive to recycling, such as Toyota's nickel-metal hydride battery, which is relatively easy to disassemble, which is worthy of our reference. In addition, the European Union's mandatory battery law last year emphasized the large-scale application of recycled materials. Zhao Xiaoyong said.