Lithium hexafluorophosphate is an important component of the electrolyte and the market price will skyrocket in 2021

Lithium hexafluorophosphate, chemical formula LiPF6, appears as white crystal or powder, easily deliquescent, soluble in water, soluble in methanol, ethanol, acetone and other organic solvents, and can decompose when exposed to air or heated. Lithium hexafluorophosphate is an important component of the lithium-ion battery electrolyte. It is currently the best overall performance and the most commonly used electrolyte lithium salt. Producing 8 tons of electrolyte requires 1 ton of lithium hexafluorophosphate. The rapid development of the global electric vehicle industry has driven a rapid increase in demand for power batteries, which is beneficial to the development of the lithium hexafluorophosphate industry.

Lithium hexafluorophosphate has high technical barriers, and my country’s early demand mainly relied on imports. In 2015, my country’s electric vehicle market exploded, and the rapid growth in demand for lithium-ion power batteries drove my country’s lithium hexafluorophosphate production capacity to continuously increase. At this stage, my country is the world’s largest producer of lithium hexafluorophosphate. my country’s leading lithium hexafluorophosphate companies are mainly polyfluoropolymer, Tianci Materials, and Xintai Materials, a subsidiary of Tianji Co., Ltd. In 2020, the combined production capacity of the three accounted for more than 50% of the total global production capacity.

According to the “2021-2025 Lithium Hexafluorophosphate Industry Investment Environment and Investment Prospects Forecast Analysis Report” released by the Industrial Research Center, the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate is affected by Downstream demand has a large impact. my country’s electric vehicle market exploded in 2015. From 2016 to 2017, the domestic supply of lithium hexafluorophosphate exceeded demand, and the market price skyrocketed. Attracted by benefits, the number of companies entering the lithium hexafluorophosphate industry in my country has increased rapidly. Since 2018, the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate has continued to fall and the expansion of production capacity has slowed down. Since the second half of 2020, as the COVID-19 epidemic has been well controlled, my country’s electric vehicle market has resumed growth, and the demand for lithium hexafluorophosphate has increased accordingly.

In 2021, my country’s lithium hexafluorophosphate market is in short supply and prices are rising rapidly. As of mid-November, the quoted price per ton has reached 500,000 yuan, and even reached 600,000 yuan. Against this background, my country’s lithium hexafluorophosphate industry has entered a new round of production capacity expansion, and many companies have announced the expansion of production capacity. Among them, the companies with larger production capacity that will be put into operation at the end of 2021 are mainly Tianci Materials and Polyfluorocarbon, and most of the remaining expanded production capacities will be put into production between 2022 and 2024. Lithium hexafluorophosphate has high technical barriers, equipment procurement takes a long time, and new and expanded production capacity requires environmental approval, so the production expansion cycle is long.

The market demand for lithium hexafluorophosphate is strong. Judging from the orders from leading companies, in November 2021, Duofuoduo issued announcements. Its subsidiary Henan Nonferrous Metals signed a “Purchase Agreement” with Enchem Co., Ltd. Within three years, Enchem Co., Ltd. It is planned to purchase lithium hexafluorophosphate with a total amount of not less than 1 billion yuan from Henan Nonferrous Metals; Duofuoduo and BYD signed a “Strategic Cooperation Agreement”. From January 2022 to December 2025, BYD plans to purchase a total amount of lithium hexafluorophosphate from Duofuoduo. 56,050 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate.

Industry analysts said that from the orders of leading companies, it can be seen that the demand for lithium hexafluorophosphate will be large in the next three years, and the production expansion cycle of lithium hexafluorophosphate will be relatively long. It is expected that in 2022, the lithium hexafluorophosphate market will be robust and prices will remain high. Lithium hexafluorophosphate companies that can be put into production first will see good development. It is expected that after the expanded production capacity is fully put into operation (only the production capacity has been determined based on the production time), the production capacity of polyfluoropolymer and Tianci materials will reach 140,000 tons and 149,000 tons respectively. After this round of large-scale expansion, my country’s lithium hexafluorophosphate industry also needs to be alert to the crisis of overcapacity.