CATL develops a new type of lithium iron phosphate battery!-Hezhong Environment (Beijing) Co., Ltd. was established in 2003

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CATL develops a new type of lithium iron phosphate battery!

Published Time:

2023-03-21

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On March 15, Hunan Yurong announced its intention to sign a development agreement with CATL.

According to the agreement, Hunan Yurong will design and develop new lithium iron phosphate products according to CATL's requirements and manufacture them according to its needs.

It is understood that Hunan Yurong is a major domestic supplier of lithium-ion battery cathode materials, and CATL is its third-largest shareholder, holding 10.54% of its shares.

Driven by the vast development space of power batteries and energy storage batteries, the market demand for lithium battery cathode materials is strong.

The accelerated capacity ramp-up of new entrants, coupled with expansion plans of existing companies, has resulted in a year-on-year increase of over 160% in lithium iron phosphate production in 2022.

It is expected that the supply and demand pattern of lithium iron phosphate this year will show a more significant change compared to 2022. The total supply of lithium iron phosphate nationwide will reach 2.371 million tons, potentially facing the risk of overcapacity.

Affected by market conditions, lithium iron phosphate prices have also begun to decline. As of March 14, the spot price of lithium iron phosphate has fallen to 138,000 yuan/ton.

In addition to materials, competition in the lithium iron phosphate battery market is also intensifying. Currently, battery companies such as LG and SK are building lithium iron phosphate battery production lines. Driven by the market, BYD is also "closely pursuing" CATL.

Industry insiders believe that the impact of severe homogenization competition on enterprises depends on factors such as production costs, market prices, and product scale.

Obviously, for both CATL and Hunan Yurong, upgrading technology based on existing products and entering new markets is an important way to avoid overcapacity and establish technological barriers.

Although the above announcement does not disclose the specific content of the new product, from industry information, the upgrading of lithium iron phosphate technology has always been one of the important research and development directions in the industry. If the performance of the new lithium iron phosphate can form an advantage, there will be a large replacement space in the future.

Currently, the market is constantly searching for an "upgraded version" of the lithium iron phosphate technology route, and lithium manganese iron phosphate is considered one of the upgraded routes. Through experimental comparison, the energy density of lithium manganese iron phosphate batteries is 20% higher than that of lithium iron phosphate batteries after the addition of manganese resources.

From the publicly available information, many battery companies and cathode material manufacturers, including CATL and DNF, have actively increased investment in the lithium manganese iron phosphate technology route.