Benefiting from the record delivery of new energy vehicles, in June of this year, the production, sales, and installed capacity of power batteries simultaneously hit new highs during the year.

As the production capacity utilization rate of major power battery manufacturers returned to a high level in June, the level is expected to maintain the growth trend in the second half of the year. It can be described as preparing for the peak season of “gold, nine, silver, ten copper, eleven” in the auto market.

In June of this year, domestic power battery production reached 84.5 GWh, up 2.2% month on month, up 28.7% year on year; sales volume reached 92.2 GWh, up 51.2% year on year, up 18.4% month on month; installed capacity reached 42.8 GWh, up 30.2% year on year and 7.3% month on month.

Among the new batteries that have received much attention, the installed capacity of semi-solid-state batteries reached 0.53 GWh, an increase of 10.4% over the previous month, which is still higher than the overall growth rate of liquid lithium-ion batteries, and the share of total installed capacity continued to grow at 1.2%. However, the installed capacity of sodium-ion batteries has dropped to almost zero, and demand for terminals has dropped drastically, without the previous hot performance when lithium carbonate prices were high.

1. In the first half of the year, semi-solid state batteries and sodium-ion batteries performed very differently

In the first half of this year, lithium iron phosphate batteries accounted for nearly 70% of the market share, marking the formal establishment of a 7:3 market pattern with ternary lithium batteries.

The production, sales and loading volume of lithium iron phosphate batteries reached 302.1 GWh, 200.1 GWh, and 141 GWh, respectively, up 41.3%, 32.4%, and 35.7% year-on-year, accounting for 70.2%, 62.9%, and 69.3%.

The production, sales and loading volume of ternary lithium batteries reached 126.9 GWh, 117.1 GWh, and 62.3 GWh, respectively, up 27.1%, 17.5%, and 29.7% year-on-year, accounting for 29.5%, 36.8%, and 30.6%.

Among the new power batteries, semi-solid state batteries have officially begun large-scale loading. Popular models such as the Zhiji L6, Rantu Auto Chase, Cyrus SF5, and NIO ET7 all use semi-solid state batteries. As a result, in the first half of this year, the installed capacity of semi-solid state batteries reached 2.2 GWh, accounting for 1.6% of the total installed capacity of power batteries.

Although the main supporting battery manufacturer is currently Weilan New Energy, the addition of other semi-solid battery manufacturers such as Qingtao Energy and Huineng Technology in the second half of the year will inevitably continue to drive the increase in the installed capacity level of semi-solid state batteries.

However, it is worth noting that the installed capacity performance of sodium-ion batteries is quite poor. Although there are quite a few supporting battery manufacturers, including Ningde Times, Zhongke Haina, and Funeng Technology, the installed capacity in the first half of this year was only 1.5 MWh, in stark contrast to semi-solid state batteries that have already entered the GWh scale.

Due to the rapid decline in the price of lithium carbonate in the past year, sodium-ion batteries have lost their greatest cost advantage, and terminal car companies' interest in them has clearly weakened. In the first half of this year, only a few A00 class models, such as Jiangqi Group's Sihao EX10 Flower Fairy and Chery's QQ Ice Cream, will be equipped with sodium-ion batteries, and overall demand is low. As the price of lithium carbonate fell below the 0.09 million/ton mark for the first time in early July, the cost performance ratio of sodium-ion batteries may face a further impact.

2. The rankings of leading and second-tier manufacturers have hardly changed, while the third-tier rankings have changed quite a bit

In the second quarter of this year, the capacity utilization rate of middle and upstream manufacturers in the lithium battery industry chain maintained a month-on-month growth trend and peaked in June. With the arrival of the “Golden Nine, Silver, Ten Copper and Eleven” peak sales season for subsequent new energy vehicles, the order volume and production schedule for the third quarter are expected to reach another level.

Specifically, in June of this year, the production capacity utilization rate of leading power battery manufacturer Ningde Era rose to around 84%, and the capacity utilization rate of second-tier manufacturers such as Guoxuan Hi-Tech and Everweft Lithium Energy also increased to 60%-80%; the capacity utilization rate of the four major lithium battery material manufacturers also simultaneously increased to the 60%-90% range. The leading ones, such as cathode material manufacturer Hunan Yuneng, and negative electrode material manufacturer Betray's capacity utilization rate was as high as 96%.

Not only the leading manufacturers, but the rear power battery manufacturers also had a chance to take a breather. In the first half of this year, a total of 50 power battery companies in the Chinese NEV market achieved battery loading facilities, an increase of 2 over the same period last year.

Specifically, when it comes to the power battery manufacturers with the highest installed capacity themselves, there was little change in the rankings of leading and second-tier power battery manufacturers (top 10) in the first half of this year, while 10-15 had quite a few changes.

In the first half of this year, Inpai Battery and Kyoden New Energy used low-cost lithium iron phosphate batteries to drive an increase in their installed capacity and entered the rankings for the first time, ranking 14th and 11th. However, the players on the list for the same period last year, Jetway Dynamics and Tianjin Lishen ended up leaving the table because they withstood the constant pressure of the power battery price war, or chose to stop production or temporarily cut production.

3. Chinese power battery manufacturers collectively accelerate overseas market development

Apart from the Chinese market, from the perspective of overseas markets alone, the performance of Chinese power battery manufacturers in the first half of this year was also quite good.

In the first half of this year, China's power battery exports reached 60 GWh, an increase of 8.2% over the previous year. Among them, ternary lithium batteries still dominate, with an installed capacity of 35.6 GWh, but the growth rate has turned negative -9.3%

Compared to the same period last year, the overseas market was basically occupied by the Ningde Era family alone (the overseas market share of the Ningde Era was 27.3%, and the total overseas market share of other Chinese power battery manufacturers was 4.8%). The overseas development progress of other Chinese power battery manufacturers clearly progressed fully this year, and overseas installed capacity showed a three-digit increase.

Also, it is worth noting that the reasons for the major Chinese power battery manufacturers to achieve breakthroughs in overseas installed capacity are not the same; they can be described as “showing their own ingenuity.”

Take BYD as an example. Since this year, BYD has continued to expand the scale and scope of its NEV exports. The cumulative export volume in the first five months reached 0.1764 million vehicles, a sharp increase of 176.7% over the previous year. Through increased sales of NEV products in countries such as Brazil, Thailand, Israel, and Australia, the installed capacity of the Fudi Battery brand continues to rise in the international market.

Funeng Technology, on the other hand, is fully focusing on shifting its focus to overseas markets (the domestic market share fell from 1.23% to 0.87%, falling out of the top ten). Its battery factory in Turkey has been completely localized and has begun to officially provide sufficient quantities of battery products to customers of many European car companies such as Mercedes-Benz, etc., while also being able to avoid the influence of some high overseas tariffs and policies.

In the end, not only did Ningde Times surpass LG New Energy with a market share of 26.9% and take the top spot in overseas installed capacity, but battery manufacturers such as BYD, Funeng Technology, China Innovation Airlines, and Sunwoda also fully entered the top ten rankings. The overall overseas market share was 8.9%, which is a sufficient increase of 4.1 percentage points.

In summary, in the first half of this year, semi-solid state batteries and sodium-ion batteries, which have recently come out of the market, proved that not all new batteries with bright spots will be successful; at the same time, in a situation where the domestic market pattern is relatively stable, second-line power battery manufacturers followed the Ningde era and joined the overseas market force, which is indeed a good way to find new growth points.