In 2017, the growth of lithium battery industry in China accelerated noticeably. The production and sales volume of new energy vehicles increased by over 50%, the output of lithium-ion battery increased by over 40%, the total output of lithium battery cathode material increased by over 50%, the output of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide Increase more than 50%. Most enterprises in the industry increased their profits, but a few enterprises faced difficulties in operation and suffered losses. The following is divided into several areas were introduced:

First, lithium resources development </ strong>

Domestic lithium ore resources are mainly located in Sichuan, Xinjiang, Jiangxi and other places, Salt Lake resources are mainly located in Qinghai and Tibet. Due to the continued high and volatile prices of lithium and lithium salts, the exploration and development of lithium resources in China significantly accelerated.

Spodumene mine in China are mainly distributed in Sichuan Ganzi, Aba, Xinjiang, Hetian, Aletai and other places. Compared with foreign mines, domestic mines have harsh natural environments, high altitudes, poor infrastructure facilities, difficult mining, difficult tailings treatment and small scale of production. Some mines also have problems with their residents and environmental issues in their mines. More and more businesses are turning their attention to Australia and African countries. Shandong Ruifu Lithium Industry, Huayou Cobalt, Jiang Electric, Accor Chemical Industry, Hunan long-term lithium and other shares in foreign mines or foreign mines signed a strategic cooperation agreement.

Local governments attach importance to the development of lithium industry, speed up the pace of exploration and exploitation of lithium resources, domestic lithium resources exploration made new achievements. In November 2017, a total of 6 new spodumene ore bodies were discovered in the Shizhimenwu area, Jinchuan County, where the comprehensive utilization of the Geological Survey was made in Chengdu, Aberdeen, Sichuan Province. The length of the ore bodies exposed was about 88 to 1553 meters, Width of 2 to 35 meters, the average grade of lithium oxide 1.77%. After the initial surface engineering control and estimation of resources, Sri Lanka is the foot of the wood-based region 3341 lithium resources 51,900 tons of resources, up to the scale of large-scale mineral resources.

Salt Lake lithium production to achieve new breakthroughs, several Salt Lake resources development and utilization project started, Qinghai Haixi has become an important production base of salt lake in China. By the end of August 2017, Tibet Potash Company adopted the salt lake brine provided by Xianfeng Holding Co., Ltd. to obtain the basic scheme, process and lithium-ion enrichment material of the relevant technology of lithium carbonate products, and build an annual output in Chaerhan Salt Lake 20,000 tons of lithium carbonate project, the construction period of 18 months. Xianfeng Holdings and China Agricultural Resources Group, Agricultural Bank of China, Xingyuan Potash and other joint venture set up lithium carbonate extraction joint venture company to develop lithium resources Dalang Beach Salt Lake.

Domestic spodumene production continues to fluctuate in position, is expected to produce about 10,000 tons of spodumene concentrate, fold LCE about 1,000 tons. Lime mica concentrate production in Yichun, Jiangxi Province is estimated to be 200,000 tons, accounting for about 13,000 tons of LCE.

From January to November 2017, China imported a total of 886,700 tons of lithium concentrates. Mainly from Australia. Due to tight supply of lithium raw materials by domestic lithium salt processing enterprises, some enterprises import a large amount of lithium ore from Australia and other countries and use domestic beneficiation facilities to produce lithium concentrates. January-November 2017 imports more than 1.7 million tons of spodumene ore.

Second, lithium salt production </ strong>

By the end of 2017, the domestic production capacity of lithium salt will be about 250,000 tons, including 178,000 tons of lithium carbonate, 54,000 tons of lithium hydroxide and 18,000 tons of lithium chloride, including industrial-grade and battery-level capacity, including foreign- Processing capacity.

Compared with the production capacity of 170,000 tons by the end of 2016, domestic lithium salt production capacity increased by 47%. Shandong Ruifu Lithium industry with an annual output of 20,000 tons of lithium carbonate production line put into trial production in the second half of 2017, Jiangxi Jinhui Lithium industry with an annual output of 10,000 tons of lithium mica production of industrial grade lithium carbonate production line put into operation in early September, Qinghai Hang Shun Rong lithium industry with an annual output 20,000 tons of lithium carbonate production line put into trial production in November 2017. Jiangsu Baozhong Bao Da, Jiangxi together with the lithium industry, Jiang Li Silver and other enterprises lithium salt expansion project completed and put into operation.

According to the preliminary statistics of Lithium Industry Branch of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, global lithium output in 2017 was 235,400 tons (lithium carbonate equivalent), an increase of 21.5% over the same period of last year. The output of lithium salt in China was 123,400 tons (including the import of industrial grade lithium carbonate into batteries Grade lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide, etc.), an increase of 43.5% over the same period of last year. See Table 1 for details.

Domestic salt lake brines extract lithium technology continues to improve, enterprises gradually increase the utilization of existing capacity, some enterprises capacity utilization up to 80%. Developed and mastered precipitation technology, calcination, extraction, adsorption, nanofiltration, ion exchange membrane and other technology process. According to Lithium industry branch statistics and field research can determine China's salt brine extraction process has made new breakthroughs in the future for China's lithium industry to provide more power.

In 2017, Jiangxi Jinhui Lithium Industry, Jiangxi Zongteng, Jiangxi Yunli and Jiangte Electrical Machinery adopted different technologies for lithium carbonate production of lithium carbonate to continuously reduce production costs and record high output.

Domestic enterprises make use of the technology and cost advantage of producing lithium hydroxide from spodumene concentrate to produce a large quantity of high-quality lithium hydroxide products, and comprehensively put into operation the production line of some newly-built production lines, and the annual capacity utilization rate reaches more than 75%. Domestic lithium-based grease, high-nickel ternary materials consumption, the large number of lithium hydroxide exports, the annual export volume is expected to reach 20,000 tons, the main export destination is Japan and South Korea.

Lithium chloride is mainly used for preparing metallic lithium, also can be used as flux, solder, desiccant and as a catalyst for some chemical reactions and reaction aids. Jiangxi Gan Feng Li industry is the largest domestic lithium chloride production enterprises. Due to tight supply and demand of lithium salt and volatile price, output of domestic lithium metal will decrease slightly in 2017.

Third, the cathode material production </ strong>

On December 29, 2016, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission promulgated the "Notice on Adjusting the Financial Subsidy Policy for the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles" (subsidizing the implementation of the New Deal in January 2017) New subsidy standards for passenger cars, passenger cars and logistics vehicles, respectively, the introduction of more detailed energy density battery requirements. New Energy Subsidy Policy Launches, Subsidy Policy More Reward High-energy-density batteries, good ternary materials and fuels (hydrogen-based) Battery vehicles. These are the obvious reactions in 2017 for cathode material production.

According to the statistics of Lithium Industry Branch of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, in 2017, the output of cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries in China was 323,000 tons, an increase of 49.54% over the same period of last year, consuming about 110,000 tons of lithium carbonate, an increase of 52.14% over the same period of last year. More than 10 companies cathode material production more than 10,000 tons.

As can be seen from Table 2, due to the adjustment of subsidy policies, the production of ternary materials continues to grow under the dual stimulation of national industrial policy guidance and market demand. When Sheng Technology, Beitui, Ningbo Rongbai and other enterprises have started Production NCM811, NCM622 and NCA and other ternary materials. Lithium iron phosphate battery safety, low cost, long life and other advantages, widely used in the field of power vehicles and energy storage, in 2017, the domestic lithium iron phosphate material output continued to grow. Lithium manganese oxide battery with power performance, discharge rate performance, low temperature performance, high voltage frequency characteristics of the first batch of 2017 new energy bus recommended directory, there are 38 models of optional lithium manganese battery. Lithium manganese oxide batteries in the recommended directory, the highest proportion of new energy buses, especially lithium manganese batteries in logistics vehicles on the application of domestic lithium manganese oxide to promote the production. In 2017, the technological progress and output of cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries in China have made great strides.

My country has become the most important producer and consumer of positive materials in the world. To meet the different needs of power battery, energy storage lithium battery and small lithium three major markets, the main battery materials factory and downstream customers jointly develop different types of products, according to customer orders ingredients production. As many companies are optimistic about the development of new energy vehicles, lithium-ion cathode material rapid expansion of production capacity, according to Lithium Branch statistics, the top 30 domestic production capacity of more than 500,000 tons. Hunan Shanshan, Ningbo Rongbai, Beitui and a number of leading enterprises in the construction or planning and construction of cathode materials production capacity of up to hundreds of thousands of tons. It is estimated that by 2020, the production capacity of cathode materials in the country will double.

Four, lithium battery production and application overview </ strong>

Lithium battery applications continue to expand, from e-cars, mobile phones, laptops, tablets, digital cameras, power tools, electric bicycles, electric motorcycles, military equipment, aerospace and other fields, , CD player, MP3, MP4, video camera, various remote control, razor, children's toy, etc., it is also used in wind power generation, solar power station, etc. from emergency power supply in hospitals, hotels, supermarkets and telephone exchanges. Energy storage power system.

National policy support for new energy vehicles and financial subsidies, many local governments will be the lithium battery industry as the focus of development, investment, etc. also give strong support. After the release of the 2017 version of the power battery specification, a large number of power battery companies set off a wave of expansion. By the end of 2017, the overall power battery production capacity has exceeded 228 billion kWh, an increase of 125% over the previous year, further causing excess capacity in the industry. In 2017, the national lithium-ion battery production exceeded 11 billion natural only. According to the statistics of Asia-Pacific Consulting, in 2017, China's lithium-ion battery output was about 88.7GWh, up 29.3% over the same period of last year. The main areas of consumption are shown in Figure 1.

In 2017, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in major global countries reached 1.42 million. The domestic production of new energy vehicles reached 794,000 units with a sales volume of 777,000 units, up 53.6% and 53.3% respectively over the same period of previous year. The installed capacity of domestic power battery is about 33.55GWh, according to the disclosure of lithium battery enterprises, some enterprises have some inventories.

In 2017, lithium and cobalt, the key raw materials for lithium-ion batteries, have risen sharply, putting tremendous pressure on the battery industry. Many enterprises extend the industrial chain in order to achieve the target of 1 yuan / Some of the depot, battery factory investment in key resources of batteries, and strive to reduce costs.

Five, 2017 lithium price trend </ strong>

The new policy of subsidies for new energy vehicles in early 2017 has yet to be introduced. The impact of the Spring Festival on production is superimposed. The output of new energy vehicles is declining. The output of lithium batteries is declining. The demand for lithium-ion cathode materials for lithium batteries is not greatly stimulated. Domestic high-nickel ternary materials have just started, the market can not digest the rapidly increasing lithium hydroxide products, resulting in lithium hydroxide prices decline. Starting from the second quarter, the operating rate of the lithium battery industry gradually recovered, driving the demand for lithium salts such as lithium carbonate. The market prices gradually rose. In the third quarter, due to the environmental supervision and inspection and the "grab-loading" of new energy vehicles, lithium carbonate prices rose sharply, Lithium cathode materials such as high nickel demand is relatively stable, lithium hydroxide price fluctuations. By the end of the fourth quarter, due to the large amount of domestic imports of spodumene ore and concentrates, as well as the release of lithium in the domestic salt lake, Lithium mica mentioning major breakthroughs in lithium and other information was released. The price of lithium carbonate gradually dropped. The main lithium salt prices shown in Figure 2.

Six, 2018 outlook </ strong>

At the beginning of 2018, several domestic and foreign listed companies issued announcements that they intend to enter the lithium carbonate industry or invest lithium resources. In recent two or three years to Australia, Africa, South America, investment in lithium resources more and more enterprises, lithium resources exploration and development activities more and more active. In 2018, three larger lithium mines in Australia will be put into operation. Lithium concentrates will be shipped to China one after another, and the lithium ore resources transported to China from overseas will also increase substantially. These will play a positive role in ensuring the supply of lithium carbonate in China and even in the world.

For everyone concerned about the price of lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, the key depends on market demand and effective supply. According to the support of various countries for the new energy automobile industry and the plans of various automobile factories, the global demand for lithium is expected to increase by about 50,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent in 2018. Domestic ore to lithium enterprises, more than half of the production capacity need to purchase spodumene concentrate, even if the purchase of ore processing concentrate, the raw material costs are not cheap. In the meantime, the price of lithium carbonate in foreign countries is gradually rising. The demand for lithium salt in Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States is also increasing year by year. Overseas lithium salt projects have high investment costs, long construction period and slow capacity release.

The newly added lithium carbonate processing capacity is mainly in China, and the lithium salt processing project started construction last year is also proceeding according to the schedule. The first half of this year put into operation the project and capacity smaller, combined with the commissioning of the production line run-in, to release the output in the second half in the fourth quarter is expected to supply tight situation can be effectively reversed.