Supply crisis of electric vehicle materials -Lithium - Ion Battery Equipment
The use of cobalt has never stopped since ancient times. The ancient Greeks and Romans used it to make colored glass. The blue color on the famous three-color porcelain of the Tang Dynasty in China is also a masterpiece of cobalt.
In modern times, cobalt and its alloy products have been widely used in many industrial fields, such as machinery, chemical industry, and even special aerospace. It can be said that today's cobalt has become a metal of great strategic significance.
Cobalt is particularly important in the field of new energy vehicles, which is being vigorously promoted and rapidly developed all over the world.
As we all know, the development of new energy vehicles has successfully passed its initial stage. Although the technology is still not mature, it has gradually developed a clear development direction in the process of survival of the fittest.
For example, the lithium iron phosphate battery with large volume, small energy density and weak low temperature resistance has been eliminated by the industry. In order to further improve the endurance of electric vehicles, BYD abandoned the lithium iron phosphate battery and replaced it with lithium ternary battery, which is a good example.(Lithium - Ion Battery Equipment)
The ternary lithium battery, which is famous for its advantages of high energy density, high efficiency, high safety and large unit power ratio, is popular and widely used in the field of electric vehicles.
Although the ternary lithium battery is divided into two categories, one is the nickel cobalt lithium battery used by Tesla, the benchmark of the global pure electric vehicle market, and the other is the nickel cobalt manganese battery used by Nissan, BMW and other automotive enterprises.
However, no matter which one, cobalt is an indispensable material and can not be replaced. Cobalt plays an important role in improving the energy density of batteries, which is closely related to the endurance of electric vehicles.
Therefore, the current popularity of cobalt in the promotion of electric vehicles around the world is just to follow the trend.
Generally speaking, the battery of a smart phone contains 6 grams of cobalt, the battery of a laptop contains 33 grams of cobalt, and the power battery of an electric car needs to contain as much as 15 kilograms of cobalt.
With the increasing demand for cobalt, the stable supply of 100000 tons of annual output value seems to have been unable to match the demand. In recent years, the supply gap of cobalt ore is increasing, and the price of cobalt is also rising.
The arrival of the era of electric vehicles has launched an unprecedented growth period for cobalt.
Once upon a time, the price of cobalt per kilogram was not more than $30. However, since the fourth quarter of last year, cobalt per kilogram has risen to about $60. At the beginning of this year, the international trading price of cobalt has even risen to $94 per kilogram, the highest in history.
The reason is that, like lithium, cobalt has become the latest manufacturing material benefiting from lithium batteries in electric vehicles due to the huge demand for power batteries in the entire automotive industry.
With the rapid development of the field of new energy vehicles, more automobile enterprises have entered the field. Many old car giants have also begun to invest in electric vehicles. The entire electric vehicle market will continue to expand, and the demand for batteries will also further expand. With this development, the price of cobalt will continue to soar in the next few years.
It is obvious that the global automotive industry has entered the battle for the supply chain of battery raw materials. This year, BMW took the lead in signing a 10-year lithium and cobalt raw material supply contract for the battery of electric vehicles. At the same time, Volkswagen Group is also increasing the layout of the battery supply chain to avoid the shortage of raw materials.
However, the development of the matter is far from simple. For the world, the total reserves of cobalt resources are mainly concentrated in Congo, Australia, Cuba and other countries, about 7 million tons, widely distributed, and the content is not high compared with many other metals.
In addition to the resource itself, the influence of the current situation also makes cobalt ore more precious. Because the political situation of Congo has been in a state of instability for a long time, its mineral export policy has a lot of unstable factors. Congo once issued a policy to restrict cobalt ore and primary products in 2007.
In addition, the current market demand for electric vehicles is also far higher than production. According to the data of cobalt raw materials traded last year, slightly more than half of cobalt has flowed into the rechargeable battery industry, compared with only 20% in the early years.
In modern times, cobalt and its alloy products have been widely used in many industrial fields, such as machinery, chemical industry, and even special aerospace. It can be said that today's cobalt has become a metal of great strategic significance.
Cobalt is particularly important in the field of new energy vehicles, which is being vigorously promoted and rapidly developed all over the world.
As we all know, the development of new energy vehicles has successfully passed its initial stage. Although the technology is still not mature, it has gradually developed a clear development direction in the process of survival of the fittest.
For example, the lithium iron phosphate battery with large volume, small energy density and weak low temperature resistance has been eliminated by the industry. In order to further improve the endurance of electric vehicles, BYD abandoned the lithium iron phosphate battery and replaced it with lithium ternary battery, which is a good example.(Lithium - Ion Battery Equipment)
The ternary lithium battery, which is famous for its advantages of high energy density, high efficiency, high safety and large unit power ratio, is popular and widely used in the field of electric vehicles.
Although the ternary lithium battery is divided into two categories, one is the nickel cobalt lithium battery used by Tesla, the benchmark of the global pure electric vehicle market, and the other is the nickel cobalt manganese battery used by Nissan, BMW and other automotive enterprises.
However, no matter which one, cobalt is an indispensable material and can not be replaced. Cobalt plays an important role in improving the energy density of batteries, which is closely related to the endurance of electric vehicles.
Therefore, the current popularity of cobalt in the promotion of electric vehicles around the world is just to follow the trend.
Generally speaking, the battery of a smart phone contains 6 grams of cobalt, the battery of a laptop contains 33 grams of cobalt, and the power battery of an electric car needs to contain as much as 15 kilograms of cobalt.
With the increasing demand for cobalt, the stable supply of 100000 tons of annual output value seems to have been unable to match the demand. In recent years, the supply gap of cobalt ore is increasing, and the price of cobalt is also rising.
The arrival of the era of electric vehicles has launched an unprecedented growth period for cobalt.
Once upon a time, the price of cobalt per kilogram was not more than $30. However, since the fourth quarter of last year, cobalt per kilogram has risen to about $60. At the beginning of this year, the international trading price of cobalt has even risen to $94 per kilogram, the highest in history.
The reason is that, like lithium, cobalt has become the latest manufacturing material benefiting from lithium batteries in electric vehicles due to the huge demand for power batteries in the entire automotive industry.
With the rapid development of the field of new energy vehicles, more automobile enterprises have entered the field. Many old car giants have also begun to invest in electric vehicles. The entire electric vehicle market will continue to expand, and the demand for batteries will also further expand. With this development, the price of cobalt will continue to soar in the next few years.
It is obvious that the global automotive industry has entered the battle for the supply chain of battery raw materials. This year, BMW took the lead in signing a 10-year lithium and cobalt raw material supply contract for the battery of electric vehicles. At the same time, Volkswagen Group is also increasing the layout of the battery supply chain to avoid the shortage of raw materials.
However, the development of the matter is far from simple. For the world, the total reserves of cobalt resources are mainly concentrated in Congo, Australia, Cuba and other countries, about 7 million tons, widely distributed, and the content is not high compared with many other metals.
In addition to the resource itself, the influence of the current situation also makes cobalt ore more precious. Because the political situation of Congo has been in a state of instability for a long time, its mineral export policy has a lot of unstable factors. Congo once issued a policy to restrict cobalt ore and primary products in 2007.
In addition, the current market demand for electric vehicles is also far higher than production. According to the data of cobalt raw materials traded last year, slightly more than half of cobalt has flowed into the rechargeable battery industry, compared with only 20% in the early years.
