High Purity Alumina Leads New Trend of Lithium Battery Coating

Lithium battery ceramic coating is expected to lead to the demand growth of high purity superfine alumina. We can estimate that the market demand growth for high purity superfine alumina of global lithium battery diaphragm will reach 94% and 81% respectively in 2016-2017.

According to the li-ion battery diaphragm production accounting for 60% of global market, the market demand that lithium-ion battery diaphragm needs high purity superfine alumina is nearly 9000 tons. Domestic high-end high purity alumina market is mainly monopolized by Sumitomo Chemical, Baikowski,  SOSAL, and other companies, and Sumitomo Chemical is the largest enterprise whose market share accounts for 60% global high-end market share.

High-purity ultrafine alumina technology used for lithium battery diaphragm coating has high technical requirements, whose granular level needs 300-500 nm. Ceramic material is scarce that involves li-ion battery diaphragm coated materials, whose products have entered Cangzhou Mingzhu, and LG supply system. It is expected to be heavy volume in the future. High purity superfine alumina capacity will rise from the current 1000 tons/year to 5000 tons/year.

We think that under the background of further ascension of new energy vehicles demand and little new supply, the price of lithium carbonate is expected to remain strong in the second quarter of 2016.