New data from benchmark mineral intelligence shows how China leads the lithium-ion battery in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain by improving its capabilities in metal smelting, battery grade chemical production, cathode and anode manufacturing, etc.
These data show the share of China in the total global production at all stages of the battery supply chain in 2019.
The chart combines the upstream: lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, manganese and other key battery raw materials, as well as the locations extracted through traditional mining or brine operations, but does not include the country of origin of the operator.
Midstream refers to battery grade chemicals refined or produced from these raw materials, from which cathodes and anodes are produced, while the downstream is the production of decomposed lithium-ion batteries.
The research company said that although there is a misunderstanding that China is the main producer of battery metals, only 23% of the global supply of battery raw materials comes from China.
However, due to China's large investment in the refining of lithium carbonate, hydroxide, cobalt sulfate, manganese and uncoated spherical graphite, China's leading position in the chemical production of battery grade raw materials accounts for 80% of the total global output.
Benchmark said that the capacity ownership of this key chemical conversion and refining step ensures that global raw materials flow to China for value-added production.
At the same time, the core components of lithium-ion batteries cathode and anode accounted for 66% of global production in 2019.
Article source:First lithium power grid
