On August 24, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate rose $500 to $71,000 US dollars, in seven trading days, up six times, according to data from Shanghai Steel Union. This year's market is that the price of battery grade lithium carbonate rose to $74,000 yuan / ton at the beginning of the year, although it fell back, but in recent months is still hovering at the high of $68,000 / ton.
Now, the price of lithium carbonate once again immediately hit the $72,000 mark, to show the industry that its lithium battery industry "king" position is still stable.
"The cost (per ton is exceeds $58,000), and the price can't be too low."A lithium carbonate enterprise person in charge of helplessly said.
In this regard, Huatai Securities recently said that the high price of lithium to provide commercial opportunities, the construction of sodium power industry chain will be accelerated. Under the background of tight lithium resources, the strategic significance of sodium ion battery is prominent. Sodium batteries are more stable in electrochemical properties and less expensive than lithium batteries. Sodium batteries are expected to be widely used in low-energy density electric passenger vehicles, electric two-wheelers, energy storage, electric tools and other fields, with the market size to reach $8.45 billion in 2027.
"The development of sodium-ion batteries will not only help ease China's dependence on 80% of its lithium resources and maintain supply chain security, but also delay the price increase caused by the rise of raw materials for lithium-ion batteries, thus reducing the cost pressure."Cicc research report pointed out.
In terms of resource reserves, sodium ranks the sixth among global elements, and sodium resources are widely distributed around the world, with abundant reserves in the crust that account for 2.64%, 423 times that of lithium resources, and the refining technology is simple, which is also a great advantage that sodium ion batteries can be widely used.
Citic Securities Research report estimates that by 2025, the potential total demand of sodium battery in energy storage, electric two-wheelers and low-speed electric vehicles will reach 190GWh, with a huge market space.
At the policy level, sodium batteries are also supported at the national level. In the view of the industry, the current obstacle of sodium ion battery industrialization lies in the lack of electrode consensus and the limitation of application space, leading companies into the bureau to form an industry demonstration, a generation of sodium battery is comparable to iron lithium battery in many aspects.
In the future, with the large-scale production of sodium batteries, the cost is expected to fall significantly. The sodium / lithium battery production system is mostly generally used, and the existing lithium battery enterprises can switch their production capacity quickly, which is expected to take the lead to benefit from the industrial layout.