Output of Nickel-rich Cathode Materials Increases Significantly
| Jerry Huang
According to statistics from ICCSINO, the market share of nickel-rich ternary materials (811&NCA type) in 2020 has increased to 22% approximately in the field of overall ternary materials, a significant increase compared to that of in 2019. While this year in 2021, total output of ternary cathode materials turns out to be about 106,400 tons in China in Q1+April, of which nickel-rich materials accounted for 32.7%. The monthly output in April reached a new level in a record of 10,450 tons, a year-on-year increase of 309.8%. The growth rate far exceeded expectations. Nickel-rich ternary materials gradually became the main battlefield of the future ternary materials.
In fact, in the past few years, the high-nickelization of ternary cathode materials has not been smooth in China market. Although the trend already appeared in the market in 2018, nickel-rich materials were not well accepted in the Chinese new energy market due to technical and safety issues. In 2019, market share of nickel-rich material was only about 13%. However, with the booming demand in overseas markets in the past two years and the popularity of nickel-rich batteries by major car companies, the shipments of China’s nickel-rich cathode materials have been steadily increasing.
Here is a chart showing shares of different ternary cathode materials' output in China market in Q1+April over recent years. Source: ICCSINO.COM