BYD blade battery, Ningde Time Kirin battery, industry leaders of heavyweight products to promote the progress of China's lithium battery, but also let the outside world curious: in addition to the optimization of the module form structure, China's lithium battery industry materials innovation and what step?

　　From October 10 to 11, at the "2022 GaoGong Lithium Materials Conference" held in Chengdu, manufacturers of composite copper foil, silicon anode, carbon nanotubes and sodium ion battery materials showed off their best work, with endless iterations of product innovation.

　　"From structural innovation to material innovation, this is the upgrade of China's lithium industry innovation, which can be said to be version 2.0." Zhang Xiaofei, chairman of GaoGong Lithium, said that the development and progress of the battery industry depends largely on the innovation of materials, equipment and process innovation. "Material innovation, especially innovation of key main materials, is particularly difficult, but industry colleagues have also been continuously pushing forward and have made breakthroughs in several fields."

　　Composite copper foil challenges traditional copper foil

　　How difficult is material innovation? Zang Shiwei, chairman of Chongqing Jinmei New Materials, said there were many times when he wanted to give up during the innovation R&D process.

　　Since its establishment, Chongqing Jinmei New Materials has been engaged in the research and development of fluid collection (composite copper foil). "For 8 years, there were all kinds of helplessness in the middle, and we couldn't see the direction, but we persevered and invested a lot of people, money and materials, with an average of 100 million yuan of expenses a year." Zang Shiwei said.

　　Zang Shiwei and Chongqing Jinmei new materials finally "came out". It is understood that Chongqing Jinmei new materials this year has officially launched the scale of mass production, a new generation of products have completed the mass production of the import work. Previously, Chongqing Jinmei new material products have been tested and installed, and have a longer period of road operation data.

　　Chongqing Jinmei new materials behind the thick and thin development, can not be separated from the downstream giant's full support. Public information shows that Ningde Times' Changjiang Chendao (Hubei) New Energy Industry Investment Partnership (limited partnership) holds 21.26% of Chongqing Jinmei through Anhui Jinmei New Material.

　　Ningde Times values the performance advantages of composite copper foil. It is understood that compared to traditional copper foil, composite copper foil is not only safer, but also has a 5% to 10% increase in energy density.

　　However, traditional copper foil manufacturers will not give up their position. According to Chen Yubi, executive vice president of Nordic, in recent years, the company's product thickness from 8um down to 6um, and now 4.5um, the product has achieved hundreds of tons level of bulk supply, "is expected to 2023, 4.5um copper foil penetration rate will provide to 40% to 60%."

　　"The products have been iteratively upgraded, and the cost performance has continued to improve." The relevant person in charge of Gaogong Lithium said. According to statistics, from 2018 to 2021, the market share of 6um copper foil has increased from 20% to more than 65%, and the market share of 4.5um copper foil has gradually increased to 10%. Both composite copper foil, which has just been mass produced, and ultra-thin copper foil, which continues to iterate, will find their own adapted application scenarios.

　　The main material of positive and negative electrode continues to be upgraded iteratively

　　"The silicon-carbon cathode products we have developed already feature ultra-low expansion, ultra-high capacity and high multiplication rate, and are expected to be ready for mass production in 2023." Lu Hao, deputy general manager of Tianmu Pioneer, revealed when introducing the progress of the development of silicon-based anode materials.

　　At present, graphite anode material still occupies the mainstream of the market, but the theoretical specific capacity of graphite anode material is 372 mAh/g, and the actual specific capacity has reached 360-365 mAh/g at present, which can be improved with less space. The theoretical specific capacity of monolithic silicon anode is 4200 mAh/g, which is 11.29 times of the theoretical specific capacity of graphite anode material, and is considered to be the main force of the next generation of anode material.

　　In April this year, Tianmu Pioneer announced to invest in nano-silicon based anode project in Liyang with a total investment of 1 billion RMB. In February, Betrayal announced its intention to invest in a 40,000 ton per year silicon-based anode material project, with an estimated total investment of 5 billion yuan.

　　The same approaching theoretical specific capacity of materials and lithium iron phosphate, "manganese" has become one of the new path. Jun Zhao, assistant president and executive vice general manager of the cathode division of Yungbay Technology, said lithium manganese iron phosphate will gradually replace lithium iron phosphate in some application scenarios, especially in the field of power batteries, because lithium manganese iron phosphate has a higher energy density.

　　As a global leader in the segment of ternary cathode materials, Rongbaek Technology previously entered the field of lithium manganese iron phosphate materials through the acquisition of Tianjin Skoland, and put forward a plan to form 300,000 tons of lithium manganese iron phosphate materials production capacity by 2025.

　　"High nickel shipments have reached 40% of the ternary shipments, last year the number was about 25%, with a year-on-year growth rate of nearly 240%." Zhao Jun introduced a number of companies have launched advanced products for electric cores, which has a very obvious promotion and application of high nickel.

　　"The iterative path of ternary cathode materials is very clear, and now some companies have launched quadruple materials, and industrial upgrading has been continuing." An interviewed industry insider said that it is the continuous innovative exploration of raw materials that has driven the rapid progress of China's lithium industry.

　　Work together to build a safe and tough supply chain

　　"We hope to systematically build a power battery supply chain ecology together with our industry colleagues to create a new energy ecosystem with sustained global competitiveness." Huang Bin, joint assistant president of Ningde Times supply chain and operation system, said in his speech.

　　It is understood that the power battery supply chain is currently facing at least three challenges: first, the huge demand for capital and resources, investment is often in the billions, billions, tens of billions of investment is not uncommon; second, the construction cycle is long, the construction of some production capacity may take 18 months, some up to 24 months, a period of supply and demand mismatch may trigger dramatic price fluctuations; third, some of the equipment still exists import Dependence.

　　"Whether it is the manufacture of new energy vehicles, or the processing and manufacturing of batteries, or the processing and manufacturing of battery materials, China has a large share of the global market, and our position is very solid. However, the mastery of the front-end mineral resources, and our actual total demand is still not matched." Huang Bin said.

　　How to meet the relevant challenges? The answer is the strategic synergy of the whole industry chain, including joint research and innovation in core areas, sharing global logistics network, and promoting the construction of supply chain finance. Huang Bin suggested to jointly build an efficient, agile and flexible supply chain in order to give full play to the advantages of big chemical industry, while optimizing the supply chain structure and enhancing the anti-risk capability.

　　In fact, vertical integration and integrated layout have been the consensus of the industry chain and practiced by each segment leader. "The head customers are becoming more and more concentrated, and verticalization is getting closer and closer, which may form a true form of lithium saltization of electrolyte and electrolyteization of lithium salt in the future." Shao Junhua, general manager of Farnright, said that the competition in the lithium materials market will turn from the previous competition of enterprises to the competition of industrial chain, and the enterprises with strong supply capacity will have more development opportunities.

　　"Our entrepreneurs are practical, and I believe our lithium industry has unlimited potential." Zhang Xiaofei, chairman of Gaogong Lithium, said that at present, Europe and the United States and other countries have increased their policy support for the new energy industry, but with strong manufacturing capacity, Chinese enterprises still have huge development opportunities. "From 2010 to 2020, the whole market has grown 10 times, and it is expected that from 2020 to 2030, the market will have 10 times more room for growth."