“New trend” emerging of battery recycling

With the integration of the industrial chain, the pace of battery recycling upstream and downstream bundling is advancing.

On February 27th, Greenway announced that it would cooperate with Mercedes Benz China, Ningde Times, and Bangpu, a subsidiary of Ningde Times, to carry out battery recycling business.

The core content of this cooperation is that in the recycling and treatment of waste batteries, the retired batteries of Mercedes Benz China will be handed over to Greenway and Bangpu for treatment, and the key raw materials such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium recycled by them will be re supplied to the supply chain of Ningde Times and used for the production of new Mercedes Benz batteries.

It can be seen that it is similar to the recent plan of Ningde Times to launch a lithium ore rebate by binding vehicle battery shipping orders with a price of 200000 yuan/ton of lithium carbonate. This cooperation in battery recycling business involves binding upstream battery processing, manufacturing, and terminal battery shipment with host manufacturer waste batteries. Ningde Times is promoting the battery recycling field by bundling shipping orders upstream and downstream.

In terms of the business dynamics of major manufacturers' layout of battery recycling, there are increasing cases of cooperation between automotive enterprises, batteries, and battery material related enterprises, and the pace of collaborative efforts in the industrial chain is constantly advancing, such as:

In August 2022, Ningde Times and GCL Group cooperated in the field of heavy truck power replacement and battery recycling. In terms of power battery cascade utilization, it will optimize the full life cycle battery cost based on the heavy truck+energy storage application scenario, and achieve the cascade utilization of power battery in energy storage. The two sides will also actively explore innovative cooperation in the field of power battery recycling, and work together to build a mobile energy ecosystem upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.

In February 2023, Longpan Technology signed a strategic cooperation agreement with SAIC General Motors Wuling. The two sides will rely on the existing vehicle factory resources, cascade utilization technology, big data, waste battery recycling channels, as well as Longpan Technology's power battery recycling technology and positive electrode material production experience of SAIC General Motors Wuling and its related parties/suppliers to carry out power battery recycling business cooperation. Both parties will explore power battery recycling channels and solutions, including disposing, disassembling, and reusing waste batteries recovered by Longpan Technology and its subsidiaries, and then selling them to SAIC GM-Wuling and its related parties or suppliers at preferential prices.

The reason for this is that, compared to competing alone in different links such as battery manufacturers and vehicle companies, the cooperation of the upstream and downstream industrial chains can fully utilize the advantages of different links, thereby reducing industry information gaps and improving the economic value of waste battery utilization.

Taking automobile companies as an example, in the face of high material costs, especially the continuous rise in raw materials represented by lithium carbonate, automobile companies prefer to control the battery recycling business themselves. However, nowadays, in the declining price of lithium carbonate, considering the equipment, site, and labor costs involved in arranging the battery recycling business, vehicle companies are facing increasing risks and uncertainties, and they are more inclined to entrust waste batteries to a third party for recycling.

For battery manufacturers, it is difficult to arrange battery recycling business because the property rights of waste batteries change frequently in the circulation process, and the recycling process requires the cooperation of 4S stores, maintenance sites, and battery rental outlets widely distributed in the downstream, resulting in certain management costs.

With the cooperation of the upstream and downstream industrial chains, it is possible to give full play to the advantages of battery manufacturers' long links, and further process waste batteries into positive electrode materials and precursors through recycling and disposal, fully improving the added value of products; You can also rely on the widely distributed distribution channels of automobile companies to obtain a stable supply of waste batteries.

Cooperation on battery recycling in upstream and downstream industries such as main engine manufacturers and vehicle manufacturers will become an effective way.

To explore the significance behind this cooperation between Ningde Times, Greenway and Mercedes Benz in battery recycling, Ningde Times has achieved a win-win situation through upstream and downstream binding of the industrial chain, and the alliance between battery recycling companies and automotive companies has further expanded.

Cheng Huiming, an academician of the CAS Member, also mentioned that the establishment of battery recycling and utilization system is a systematic project, which requires collaborative innovation in legislation, storage and transportation, recycling technology, battery design for recycling, and traceability.

With the deepening of collaboration between upstream and downstream industries, and the exploration of win-win cooperation models by manufacturers in different links, the trend of collaboration between upstream and downstream battery recycling is gradually emerging.