Some industry insiders said that the recycling and reuse of waste power batteries can save resources and reduce production costs. With the further implementation and improvement of relevant policies and standards, the development of the battery recycling industry will accelerate into the fast lane.
With the continuous development and growth of the new energy vehicle market, the demand for power battery recycling is becoming more and more urgent. Recently, the power battery recycling market has been rising, and many industrial chain manufacturers have successively increased their layout of related businesses, in order to enhance their competitiveness before the outbreak of the industry. Some industry insiders said that the recycling and reuse of waste power batteries can save resources and reduce production costs. With the further implementation and improvement of relevant policies and standards, the development of the battery recycling industry will accelerate into the fast lane.
There are many participants
There are many players in the power battery recycling industry. In the near term, a number of companies have been competing to carry out battery recycling business layout in the form of cooperation, including car companies, battery suppliers, material companies and third-party recycling companies.
Not long ago, Tianqi Co., Ltd. announced that it plans to jointly invest in the establishment of a joint venture company with China Changan and Changan Automobile, and cooperate with the joint venture company to carry out battery recycling, cascade utilization and recycling business; GEM announced that Guangzhou Youyou Renewable Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Wuhan Power Battery Recycling, and Youpai Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GAC Group, was officially established.
Rongbai Technology recently said on the interactive platform that the company has taken the lead in completing the layout in the field of recycling. In 2013, the company and TMC jointly invested in TMR, a ternary cathode material waste recycling company, in South Korea, and in 2022, the company invested in JYT, another excellent recycling company in South Korea. In the future, the company will give full play to the unique advantages of industrial investment, and create an international and global recycling enterprise through the integration of industrial investment.
Wu Hui, president of the China Battery Industry Research Institute, said in an interview with a reporter from China Energy News: "Car companies generally adopt the method of cooperating with battery recycling plants to lay out their business. Car companies have a large number of retired battery resources and have the advantage of supply channels; Battery manufacturers generally mainly recycle batteries that were previously manufactured by themselves, and now many battery manufacturers will consider the later recycling links in the design and development stage, so the subsequent dismantling of batteries will be relatively easy. ”
On the whole, in recent years, the number of registered power battery recycling-related enterprises in mainland China has been growing, and the reporter of "China Energy News" has recently searched for more than 150,000 related enterprises with "power battery recycling" as the keyword.
The market space is huge
The new energy vehicle market in mainland China is growing rapidly. According to the forecast of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2024, the total sales of automobiles in the Chinese market will reach 31 million, a year-on-year increase of 3%, of which the sales of new energy vehicles will reach 11.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 20%.
The continuous increase in the sales of new energy vehicles also means that the number of retired power batteries to be recycled will continue to increase over time. A power battery recycling company once told the "China Energy News" reporter that the power battery centralized scrapping period is expected to appear around 2025, "the current policy has been promoting the development of the battery swap mode, if the battery swap station is popularized, the retirement 'outbreak period' may come more violently." ”
EVTank predicts that in 2026, the recycling volume of waste lithium batteries in mainland China will reach 2.312 million tons, and the market size will reach 94.32 billion yuan, in addition, according to the forecast of China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, in 2026, the installed capacity of power batteries in mainland China will exceed 710GWh. Overall, the waste battery recycling industry has a lot of room for growth in the medium and long term, and it is expected that more "players" will enter the game in the future.
"It is recommended that the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, especially battery factories and vehicle enterprises, should take into account the later recycling links when developing, designing and producing batteries, so that subsequent recycling, especially the cascade utilization link, will be relatively easy." Wu Hui said.
Guotai Junan released a research report saying that in recent years, the recycling industry policy has been gradually refined, the battery recycling business model has become more and more mature, and the scale of the industry has been expanding.
Strengthen traceability management
It is worth noting that behind the boom in the battery recycling industry, there are also challenges.
In 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the list of the first batch of enterprises that meet the "Industry Standard Conditions for the Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles", which is commonly known as the "white list" enterprises in the industry. Up to now, five batches of "white list" companies have been released, a total of 156 companies, which are regarded as the "regular army" of battery recycling.
However, at present, there are still some "small workshops" and "black households" with incomplete qualifications in the market. Some informal enterprises are competing for supplies, and unfair bidding disrupts orderly competition. "Some unqualified 'black workshop' enterprises have high prices for recycling batteries, and at the same time re-extract battery materials in a non-standard and highly polluting way, with low production costs, so they will suppress formal battery recycling enterprises." A person in the battery industry said, "Some black workshops use a simple process that is not environmentally friendly to disassemble waste batteries, and then reassemble them into small battery packs and sell them to some electric bicycle manufacturers." These products are of low quality and pose a safety hazard. ”
The interviewee pointed out that it is necessary to further strengthen the traceability management of the whole life cycle of new energy vehicle power batteries, so as to facilitate the regulatory authorities to follow up the whole life cycle process of scrapped batteries and avoid informal enterprises from entering the market. In the future, with the explosion of recycling demand, the standardization of policies and the continuous increase in the layout of industry leaders, the power battery recycling market is expected to accelerate its opening.
"It is recommended to introduce an extended producer responsibility system to encourage battery manufacturers to participate in the full life cycle management of batteries, including recycling and disposal; Further strengthen market supervision to ensure that recycling companies comply with regulations and improve industry transparency. Wu Wei, an associate professor at the China Energy Policy Research Institute of Xiamen University, said.
Original title: The power battery recycling market continues to heat up
Text丨Reporter Yao Meijiao