New energy and energy storage fields are developing rapidly, and the market demand for lithium salts is strong

Lithium salt refers to salts containing lithium element. Lithium resources mainly exist in two categories: brine type and hard rock type. 2/3 of lithium resources exist in salt lake brine and 1/3 exists in ore. my country is one of the countries with a large distribution of lithium resources in the world. Domestic lithium resources are mainly distributed in Qinghai, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Tibet, Jiangxi, Hunan and other provinces. Lithium has a high standard oxidation potential and can serve as a medium for lithium ion migration, allowing it to intercalate and deintercalate back and forth between the positive and negative electrodes to achieve energy storage and release. Therefore, it is mostly used in the battery and energy fields.

Lithium salt types include lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride, metallic lithium, etc. Among them, lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide are important raw materials for lithium-ion batteries. Lithium hydroxide is mainly used in the production of high-nickel ternary materials such as NCM811 and NCM622; lithium carbonate is mainly used in the production of other positive electrode materials such as ordinary ternary materials, lithium iron phosphate, lithium cobalt oxide, and lithium manganate. In addition, lithium carbonate is also an important raw material in medicine, metallurgy and other fields.

In recent years, in the context of the rapid development of the new energy industry, the domestic lithium battery market demand has increased significantly, and the output of lithium salt, an important raw material for lithium batteries, has continued to increase. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, my country’s lithium carbonate production in 2021 will be 240,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 40.4%; lithium hydroxide production will be 175,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 88.6%.

my country is the world’s largest consumer of lithium salts, but domestic lithium carbonate production is not enough to support the rapid growth of demand and can only rely on imports. In recent years, the scale of my country’s imports of lithium carbonate has increased significantly. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, domestic imports of lithium carbonate in 2021 will be 81,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 61.7%. At this stage, my country is highly dependent on lithium salt imports, and the main importing country is Chile.

According to the “2022-2026 Lithium Salt Project Business Plan” released by the Industrial Research Center, from the perspective of market structure, the global The lithium salt industry is highly concentrated. Lithium salt production capacity is mainly concentrated in five companies: ALB, SQM, Ganfeng, Tianqi, and Livent. In 2021, the output of the five companies will account for nearly 80% of the total global supply. Among them, Ganfeng Lithium Industry is the leading enterprise in the domestic lithium salt industry. As of the end of 2021, Ganfeng Lithium Industry has an effective production capacity of 28,000 tons of lithium carbonate, 70,000 tons of lithium hydroxide, and 2,150 tons of metallic lithium.

Industry analysts personnel said that in recent years, with the rapid development of new energy and energy storage fields, domestic new energy vehicles, 3C consumer electronics The consumption of such products is increasing rapidly, and the market demand for lithium batteries is strong, bringing huge development space and opportunities to the lithium salt industry. At this stage, my country has become the world’s major consumer of lithium salts, but its lithium salt production capacity is insufficient to meet the growing application market demand, and its dependence on imports is high. In the future, in the context of the obvious trend of high nickel and high voltage in domestic lithium batteries, lithium hydroxide will become a must-have for global power batteries, and the lithium salt industry has broad development space.