Our reporter Li Chunlian

  Trainee reporter Feng Yuyao Xu Linyan

  The rapid development of new energy vehicles has caused the supply of products in the power battery industry chain to exceed demand, which has led to a sharp rise in prices, resulting in a "highlight moment" for power battery recycling.

  "Since last year, the recycling price of power batteries has risen sharply, and some ternary black powder materials have increased by nearly 70%. The recycling price of batteries has risen sharply, one is determined by the resource attributes of waste power batteries, and the key metals for battery materials such as cobalt, lithium and nickel have recently risen. The price continues to rise." Wang Xuelei, power battery analyst of Shanghai Ganglian New Energy Division, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the electrification of automobiles has become an irreversible trend, and the power battery recycling industry has huge development space. The total market output value in 2030 is expected to expand to 110 billion yuan.

  On February 28, Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the press conference of the State Council Information Office that this year will focus on meeting production needs such as power batteries, moderately speed up the development of domestic resources such as lithium and nickel, and combat unfair competition such as hoarding and price-gouging. behavior.

  This means that behind the hot development of new energy vehicles, the hype of the power battery industry chain will gradually be regulated.

  Power battery recycling encounters high price rush

  It is understood that the main consideration for the recycling price of power batteries is the content of valuable metals such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium in the battery. Generally speaking, the market price of the above metals should be discounted and recycled.

However, at present, there has been an obvious upside-down phenomenon of discount coefficient in power battery recycling.

  According to industry insiders, the discount factor of some batteries was 60% at the lowest point last year, and now it has risen to more than 100%. Many of them are "buyers" who are rushing to buy goods at high prices, shouting a discount factor of 115% or even 120%.

  Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Energy Policy Research Institute of Xiamen University, told the Securities Daily reporter that the inversion of the discount factor is mainly related to rising raw material prices.

The purpose of recycling used batteries is to obtain the raw materials. If the price of the latter increases rapidly, the recycling price will definitely increase.

The price of raw materials is rising rapidly. Even if the recycling is at the current high price, the recycling party has already paid off.

  Over the past year, the prices of upstream raw materials for power batteries, such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium, have risen across the board.

  According to the data of the business society, the annual increase of nickel and cobalt in 2021 will be 20.47% and 80.59% respectively, and the annual increase of lithium carbonate in 2021 will be 432%.

  As the prices of raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt continue to rise, the discount factor for battery recycling is upside down.

  Mo Ke, a researcher at the True Lithium Research Institute, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that when the price of resources is not high, the main purpose of recycling waste power batteries is cascade utilization; when the price of resources is high, it can also be processed into resources and raw materials. Profitable, there will be more recycling companies to do so.

  In this regard, Wang Xuelei emphasized that the sharp rise in battery recycling prices is also related to the industry's own supply and demand structure.

The scrapping tide of power batteries has not yet arrived. At present, the total supply of used lithium batteries is less than half of the recycling capacity, and there is a huge supply gap in the market.

Industrial capital is still being added continuously, and the expectation of metal price increases is superimposed, and the market's scramble for supply has entered a white-hot state.

Some companies with disadvantaged supply channels cannot grab the supply and can only grab the procurement personnel.

  GEM recently replied on the public interactive platform that metal prices have risen recently, and battery recycling prices will also rise accordingly.

The company will reduce the impact of rising raw material costs by appropriately increasing the selling price of recycled batteries.

  Power battery recycling companies surge

  According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2021, my country's new energy vehicle sales will complete 3.521 million units, a year-on-year increase of nearly 1.6 times, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years.

At the same time, according to the China Automobile Association, sales of new energy vehicles in China are expected to reach 5 million in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 47%.

  The development of the new energy vehicle industry is in full swing, and power battery recycling companies have also shown explosive growth.

  According to Tianyancha data, there are currently more than 35,000 "power battery recycling" related companies in China.

  On February 28, Fulin Seiko announced that it plans to invest in projects such as new high-pressure lithium iron phosphate cathode materials with an annual output of 200,000 tons. Among them, in promoting the comprehensive development and utilization of lithium resources, including but not limited to lithium mine development, lithium salt Production capacity construction, lithium battery recycling and other projects.

  On February 27, Rongbai Technology also announced that it will cooperate with GEM, and the two parties will jointly build a strategic cooperation system based on the industrial chain of "nickel-cobalt resource mining - power battery recycling - ternary precursor manufacturing - ternary material manufacturing". Establish long-term close cooperative relations in the fields of power battery recycling, overseas nickel resource smelting, and precursor product supply and sales.

  It is worth mentioning that in 2021, a number of enterprises have already targeted the field of power battery recycling in advance. For example, Ningde Times announced in October last year that it planned to invest no more than 32 billion yuan to invest in the construction of Bangpu Integrated Battery Materials Industrial Park in Yichang, Hubei. projects, including the recycling of used battery materials.

  In addition, Guoxuan Hi-Tech announced in March last year that it plans to build a new power battery industry chain project in Hefei, and build a production base including upstream raw materials for power lithium batteries and battery recycling, with a total investment of 12 billion yuan.

  It is understood that among the car companies that have laid out power battery recycling earlier, BYD currently has nearly 40 recycling points across the country.

  On February 28, Yuehongyuan A also stated on the investor interaction platform that driven by the demand of the new energy lithium battery industry, the demand for power lithium battery cathode materials continued to rise, and the prices of its core raw materials nickel, cobalt and lithium continued to rise. Lithium battery recycling includes cascade utilization and resource recycling. Lithium battery recycling presents certain investment opportunities, but at present, the recycling industry has a low degree of aggregation, the sustainable recycling system is not yet perfect, the resource recycling technology route is messy, and the input and output benefits still low.

  Wang Xuelei told reporters that from the inside of the industry, it is mainly divided into three links: recycling, dismantling, and smelting. The smelting link has the highest gross profit, followed by dismantling and recycling.

As far as industrial capital is concerned, for a long period of time in the future, the ability to master enough supply channels will be the key to whether it can seize the market opportunity of power battery recycling.

  As more and more companies enter the field of power battery recycling, relevant departments are further regulating this.

  The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology emphasized that it is necessary to improve the power battery recycling system, support technological breakthroughs such as efficient dismantling and recycling, and continuously improve the recycling rate and resource utilization efficiency.

  On February 10, the eight ministries and commissions also jointly issued the "Notice on Accelerating the Implementation of the Comprehensive Utilization of Industrial Resources", which mentioned that the industry standardizes the comprehensive utilization of renewable resources in the waste power battery and waste mobile phone industries, and aims to improve the recycling of waste power batteries. Instructions are provided separately using the system.

  "With the gradual release of new upstream raw material production capacity and the development of the battery recycling industry, it is expected that the gap between supply and demand will gradually narrow in the future, the price of power batteries will gradually stabilize, and the phenomenon of upside-down recycling discount factor is unsustainable." China Steel Economic Research Institute Chief researcher Hu Qimu told reporters.

(Securities Daily)