Ganfeng Lithium's net profit in the first three quarters increased by 648.24% The commercialization process of solid-state batteries needs to be accelerated

Reporter Cao Qi

On October 27, Ganfeng Lithium released the third quarter report of 2021, and the company achieved operating income of 7.054 billion yuan in the first three quarters, an increase of 81.19% year-on-year; and achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 2.473 billion yuan, an increase of 648.24% year-on-year. Among them, in the third quarter, the operating income was 2.989 billion yuan, an increase of 98.5% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company was 1.056 billion yuan, an increase of 507% year-on-year.

The relevant person in charge of Ganfeng Lithium Industry said that the company's revenue growth in the first three quarters was mainly due to the company's 10,000 tons of lithium salt reconstruction and expansion project (phase III), and the volume and price of lithium salt products rose together.

The price of lithium products continues to rise

According to the data of the business company's bulk list, the average price of domestic industrial-grade lithium hydroxide enterprises on January 1, 2021 was 52,000 yuan / ton, and as of October 26, the average price of industrial-grade lithium hydroxide enterprises increased to 180,000 yuan / ton, the price rose more than 3 times compared with the beginning of the year, and the mainstream market quotation of battery-grade lithium hydroxide was also above 180,000 yuan / ton.

Especially since September, lithium products that have been sideways for a period of time have been rising steadily due to the continuous high price of raw material spodumene. On October 10, Ganfeng Lithium also issued a price adjustment notice letter, and from now on, the unit price of its full range of metal lithium products (industrial grade metal lithium, battery grade metal lithium, lithium lithium strip products) will be raised by 100,000 yuan / ton; the unit price of butyl lithium products will be raised by 10%. The company said that the price increase was due to the continuous rise in the price of raw materials and the impact of electricity supply, and the significant increase in the production cost of lithium metal.

Metal lithium is mainly used in lithium battery anode materials on the new energy track, Ganfeng Lithium as the world's largest producer of lithium metal, some products are sold to the outside world, some for self-use. According to Baichuan Yingfu data, the current market price of lithium metal is about 940,000 yuan / ton, up 27.03% from the price of the previous month, 50.4% from the price of the previous quarter, and 104.35% from the beginning of the year.

Behind the price increase is mainly due to the pressure on the cost end of lithium metal, since the beginning of this year, the price of lithium salt has gradually shrunk the profit side of manufacturers along the way, and the introduction of the double control policy of superimposed energy consumption has driven the price of lithium metal market to rise. It is understood that most of the raw materials of Ganfeng Lithium come from the upstream enterprises in which the company participates, and the price of spodumene is determined according to the market price and adjusted once a quarter.

It is worth noting that about 70% of ganfeng lithium industry's previous contracts are overseas long-term orders, so the price increase will be lagging behind, so although lithium prices have continued to soar this year, considering that the long-term association is generally signed according to the quarter, the profits driven by this price increase will take a while to cash in.

The commercialization process of solid-state batteries needs to be accelerated

At present, solid-state batteries are another hot outlet on the current lithium battery track, toyota, Panasonic, LG, BMW, etc. are committed to the development of solid-state batteries. It is understood that the solid-state battery replaces the flammable organic liquid electrolyte with a non-combustible solid-state electrolyte, which greatly improves the safety of the battery system, and can better adapt to the high-energy positive and negative electrodes and reduce the weight of the system, so as to achieve a synchronous increase in energy density.

However, at present, domestic solid-state batteries have not yet truly realized industrialization. Ganfeng Lithium's first-generation mixed solid-liquid electrolyte battery products have passed a number of third-party safety tests and sample tests from many customers. This year, Dongfeng Technology Center and Ganfeng Lithium industry formally signed a contract to cooperate, signed a solid-state battery E70 model demonstration promotion agreement, is expected to achieve commercial application of solid-state batteries.

The company's second-generation solid-state lithium battery is still in the research and development stage, different from the first generation of solid-state batteries, the second generation of batteries are based on high-nickel ternary cathode, metal-containing lithium anode materials. At present, the energy density of the product exceeds 350Wh/kg, and the cycle life is close to 400 times. The metal lithium and lithium products used in the battery are the key anode materials for solid-state lithium batteries, so Ganfeng Lithium added a new 7,000 tons of lithium metal project in April this year, which plans to invest 2.2 billion yuan.

It is worth noting that there is still a lot of controversy about whether solid-state batteries can become the mainstream of the industry. There is a view that solid-state batteries are still facing negative electrodes, electrolyte material technology breakthroughs, etc., if you want to apply solid-state battery anode materials with metal lithium, you will also face considerable cost pressure. Relying on lithium metal as a high energy density all-solid-state battery with a negative electrode will have limitations in battery charge rate and charging temperature conditions.

Zhang Xiang, research institute of the Automotive Innovation Center of North China University of Technology, told the Securities Daily reporter that there is still great uncertainty about whether solid-state batteries have become the mainstream of the industry. "Although solid-state batteries are less likely to burn, smaller in size, and higher in energy density, the development of solid-state batteries in general is a bit slow, from invention to now it has been more than a decade, but has not achieved mass production."

Qi Haiyan, president of Beijing Teyi Sunshine New Energy, said in an interview with the Securities Daily reporter that the all-solid-state lithium battery will be the mainstream product in the field of new energy vehicle power batteries and power storage, which can not only solve the current liquid electrolyte caused by battery safety and low capacity, but also solve the bottleneck of high-current fast charging technology, I believe that the lithium battery industry is likely to trigger a major reshuffle in the near future. Solid-state batteries should become the mainstream of future batteries, the development path should be to first achieve "solid-liquid hybrid" batteries, and then strive towards the goal of all-solid-state batteries, of course, it is not excluded that some battery manufacturers directly enter the all-solid-state battery.

"Since the technical route of lithium metal as anode material exists, there is a possibility of development and technological evolution, which is also the practical problem of the dispute between different technical routes that objectively exist in the lithium battery industry, and the technical route needs to be jointly verified by industrialization and marketization." He added.

(Edited by Zhang Wei, Cai Shandan)