Global EV battery production is dominated by only a few firms till date and LG Chem is one of them.
Recent news indicates that LG Chem has increased its 2020 production target from 70 GWh to 90 GWh, approximately 29%.It is no surprise then that LG Chem has been getting its raw material supply chain in order to meet future LIB capability.
In April, LG Chem signed a joint venture with Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt to establish precursor and cathode material facilities with capacity of 40,000tpy, with expansion to 100,000tpy envisioned.
Huayou is a cobalt refiner with cobalt mining and processing assets in the DRC. In July, LG Chem signed a 5-year, 7,000tpy lithium hydroxide off-take with Nemaska Lithium, and last week announced a 3-year, 16,000tpy lithium hydroxide supply agreement with Ganfeng Lithium starting 2019.
“Assuming 100% of output was to be NMC532, 90GWh would require around 100kt of cathode, containing 40kt nickel, 22kt cobalt, 16kt manganese and 50kt lithium (carbonate equivalent), and 90kt of anode materials which could be 100% graphite.” Note that there’s been a general shift toward NMC811 in the EV battery industry.
Overall, the significant increase in 2020 production capacity reflects the growing realization that electric cars can be competitive today. There are also rising electric car startups that will need to get their batteries from somewhere once they are ready for production, and LG Chem seems like a pretty solid “somewhere.”
Reference- Cleantechnica, InsideEVs