"Market analysis" 2022 China lithium diaphragm market development at a glance: shipments continue to rise

First. Industry chain situation

As an important component of lithium-ion batteries, the demand for lithium-ion separators is increasing with the rapid growth of the market for electric vehicles, smartphones, tablet PCs and other electronic products. Therefore, the lithium diaphragm industry is developing rapidly and has become an industry with great potential. At present, the global lithium diaphragm market is mainly dominated by China, Japan, South Korea and other Asian countries. Among them, China's lithium diaphragm industry is developing fast, with a large number of diaphragm manufacturers and sellers, and is one of the important production and exporting countries of the global lithium diaphragm industry. Diaphragm technology and materials are constantly updated and expanded, and the future development of the diaphragm industry will focus on improving the performance and safety of the diaphragm, reducing costs and environmental protection to meet the changing market demand. As one of the four key materials for lithium batteries, diaphragm technology is high, costing about 10%-20% of the cost of lithium-ion batteries, with gross margins of up to 50%-60%, the four main materials with the highest gross margins products. As the demand for lithium batteries continues to heat up, the demand for lithium battery separators also continues to grow. The upstream of China's lithium battery diaphragm industry chain includes polyethylene, polypropylene, additives, coating materials, etc.; midstream for lithium diaphragm, according to the process can be divided into dry diaphragm and wet diaphragm; downstream for lithium batteries.

Second, the upstream analysis

Polyethylene is an important raw material for manufacturing lithium diaphragm. In recent years, with the development of China's economy, polyethylene market demand is growing rapidly, production has also increased, China's polyethylene capacity and production has been maintaining a growing trend, China's polyethylene production in 2021 is about 22.72 million tons, an increase of 11.8%, production is expected to reach 30 million tons in 2022.

Polypropylene is also one of the raw materials for manufacturing lithium diaphragm. From the production situation of polypropylene in China in recent years, the overall trend is on the rise. 2020 production is 35.54 million tons, and the production of polypropylene in China from January to November 2022 is 33.87 million tons.

From the production situation of polypropylene enterprises in China in recent years, the distribution of Chinese polypropylene producers is relatively scattered. In the polypropylene industry, three listed companies, Donghua Energy, China Coal Energy and Baofeng Energy, accounted for 8.57% of China's total polypropylene production in 2021, with Donghua Energy, China Coal Energy and Baofeng Energy accounting for 3.85%, 2.53% and 2.19% respectively.

Third, midstream analysis

In recent years, driven by the global new energy vehicle market demand, China's power battery market in the first half of 2022 shipments of more than 20GWh; at the same time, driven by overseas power battery market shipments to enhance the domestic diaphragm exports increased, driving the rising shipments of lithium battery diaphragm. 2022 first half of China's lithium diaphragm shipments of 5.4 billion square meters, an increase of more than 55% year-on-year.

The current global lithium diaphragm production capacity continues to focus on China, and the Chinese market continues to close to the head of the enterprise. Global diaphragm competition pattern is dominated by four countries, China, South Korea, Japan and the United States have a market share of 43%, 28%, 21% and 6%, respectively, China's share of the rate of increase is obvious. Domestic mainstream diaphragm production capacity expansion, while the pace of global supply accelerated, diaphragm is expected to become the third after the anode, electrolyte to achieve full export of lithium midstream materials.

Four, downstream analysis

Lithium battery for the downstream application of lithium diaphragm, data show that in recent years, China's lithium battery production has climbed year by year, from 11.11 billion in 2017 to 23.26 billion in 2021; January-August 2022, China's lithium battery production of 15.11 billion.

New energy vehicles, 3C digital and energy storage for lithium diaphragm in lithium batteries important end-use scenarios. In recent years, the country has continued to introduce favorable policies to support the new energy industry, and the new energy vehicle industry has been able to develop rapidly. China's new energy vehicle production and sales have been steadily rising, and in 2022 there will be a significant increase, with production and sales reaching 7.06 million units and 6.89 million units respectively.

3C digital products are also the main end-use scenario for lithium diaphragms in lithium batteries. In recent years, China's 5G cell phones, tablet computers and wearable devices and other consumer electronics shipments grow year by year, in 2021 China's 5G cell phones, tablet computers and wearable devices shipments reached 266 million units, 28 million units and 140 million units.

In recent years, with the continuous assistance and support of China's policies, the energy storage industry has seen explosive development. 2022, China's energy storage lithium battery shipments reached 130GWh.