By Tang Guhan
Along with Japan and South Korea, China has led the lithium battery market by becoming one of the main lithium battery manufacturing countries in the world, as reported during the Lithium Industry and Power Battery Summit held in Qing Hai Province on last Sunday.
However, China's competitiveness for lithium production capabilities has been hindered by a low coefficient of utilization, technical abilities and recycling ratio.
China has a high storage volume for mineral lithium but with a low utilization ratio. Furthermore, the other essential raw materials for power battery like nickel and cobalt are in short supply domestically, and China mainly relies on imports.
The raw materials for processing lithium products depend on other nations. The storage in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for lithium is plentiful, but the extraction and separation of thelithium have posed challenges for the industry.
China has seen significant growth in New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) in recent years. " it is slated to produce over 10 million NEVs by 2030, but the current lithium shortage due to its technical capabilities is troublesome," said Zhang Yongwei, a secretary from China EV100.
Experts have analyzed the low recycling rate for lithium batteries. There has been a tremendous waste of raw materials up to 70 to 80 percent of energy was still contained in the abandoned NEVs as well as other valuable mineral materials.
China's recycling techniques have not fully matured yet and the lack of supporting policies and sound business models at present aggravate the situation.
The key to the problem is more skilled talents and continuous investments into the R&D in this area.
Enterprises should join hands with research institutions in battery development, said analysts.
