Power battery recycling "scrap" is more expensive than new products

Recently, there has been a surge in prices in the upstream of the power battery industry chain.

The industry believes that behind the soaring prices, there are objective factors such as increased demand and insufficient supply and the epidemic, as well as hoarding and speculation

Power battery recycling appears discount coefficient upside down

"If the market price of cobalt is 550,000 yuan / ton, the price of scrap may be 700,000 yuan / ton, and now the price of scrap is more expensive than new goods

The discount coefficient is upside down, and the price of "scrap" is more expensive than that of new products

The discount factor is a unique pricing method in power battery recycling

Shen Hua said that the industry regulations are based on nickel and cobalt, and lithium is converted into nickel and cobalt

Huang Xiangdong, chairman of Guangzhou Juwan Technology Research Co.

Also, scrap prices have risen more than batteries

In this case, some companies are watching

Some companies are reducing inventories

Some companies have also started to hoard

Multiple factors cause the price of waste battery recycling to rise

Experts believe that multiple factors are intertwined in the current round of waste battery recycling prices

The continuous surge in upstream raw material prices is the most direct and most important reason

If the comparison time is pulled forward, the price increase of battery raw materials is even more alarming

The rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry has also brought about a surge in demand for power batteries, resulting in tight supply and demand

Hu Chunhui, chairman of Jiangxi Special Electric Motor Co.

Market behaviors such as panic buying and speculation have also contributed to the increase in battery recycling prices
.
Huang Xiangdong said that some companies are worried that they will not be able to grab the goods at high prices, and some companies are speculating and hoarding at high prices, which aggravates the market tension
.
A leading lithium battery company told reporters that in 2021, new energy vehicles will increase by 1.
6 times year-on-year, while the price of raw materials such as lithium carbonate will rise by more than 9 times, and demand and price growth have significantly diverged
.
Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, also believes that this round of unconventional increases in raw material prices is an irrational increase.
There is an unfair competition behavior of hoarding and deliberately driving up prices in order to seize the last window period before lithium production capacity expansion
.

Combat hype and return to reasonable prices as soon as possible

Raw material prices are likely to remain high for some time to come
.
Li Baohua said that the new energy vehicle market and the expansion of lithium iron phosphate material companies have brought a lot of demand for lithium carbonate, while the world lithium raw material supply pattern of the "five lakes and seven mines" has not changed much in the short term, and it will take time for new production capacity to increase.
Prices are likely to remain high
.

The industry believes that the new energy vehicle industry is in a period of declining subsidies and shifting gears.
At present, most companies are still unable to achieve profitability, and the ability to "self-growth" is still relatively fragile.
The new energy vehicles of the period encountered "headwinds"
.

"Excessive price increases will greatly increase the cost of each link in the industrial chain, weaken the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises to withstand pressure, and affect the healthy development of the industry
.
" said Zhuang Xiangfeng, deputy general manager of Zhuhai Zhongli New Energy Technology Co.
,
Ltd.

Previously, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has stated 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 crack down on unfair competition such as hoarding and driving up prices
.

In this regard, experts believe that to promote the reasonable return of raw material prices as soon as possible, it is recommended that functional departments strengthen macro-control of the bulk raw material market, investigate illegal acts as soon as possible, and focus on cracking down on joint hoarding and price hikes.
Second, optimize the lithium mining process and speed up Output of upstream projects under construction
.
According to Hu Chunhui, the current lithium mining license approval process is long and there are many approval items.
It is suggested that in terms of simplifying the process, the approval for delimiting mining areas should be cancelled, and the approval of related matters should be included in the development and utilization plan.
Change to parallel examination and approval to improve the efficiency of examination and approval
.

In addition, the construction of a recycling system should also be accelerated
.
Up to now, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has successively released three batches of enterprise lists of "Industry Standard Conditions for Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles", which are hailed by the industry as the "regular army" that has entered the white list, but there are only 47 enterprises in total, with more than 40,000 enterprises Compared with the number of registrations at home, the contrast is strong
.
Li Baohua suggested that policy documents such as the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Comprehensive Utilization of Industrial Resources" should be implemented as soon as possible, improve the recycling system of used power batteries, accelerate the cooperation between upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to jointly build recycling channels, and build a cross-regional recycling system
.

At the same time, it is necessary to accelerate the research and development of diversified technologies
.
Deng Xiaoguang, founder of Guoguang Shuneng (Shanghai) Energy Technology Co.
, Ltd.
, said that power batteries cannot be limited to only a few elements, not all batteries need to pursue the ultimate density, and should explore as many technical paths as cobalt-free batteries as possible
.
(Reporter Wu Tao, Sun Fei, Yu Xianhong)