Under the trend of high nickelization of cathode materials, Gremei plans to supply large quantities to Korean enterprises.
On the evening of April 15, Gleimey announced that in order to ensure the implementation of the production and marketing target of the company's high nickel precursors in 2021-2023 and lock the order expectation, the company and EcoproBMCo., Ltd recently signed a memorandum of understanding on the supply of NCA and NCM high nickel precursor materials for new energy power batteries in 2021-2023.
According to the memorandum, the company will supply EcoproBM with a total amount of not less than 176,000 tons of NCA and NCM high nickel ternary precursor materials from 2021 to 2023.
Among them, no less than 30,000 tons in 2021, 73,000 tons in 2022, and keep increasing on the basis of ensuring 73,000 tons in 2023, the specific details shall be subject to subsequent procurement contracts.
NCA and NCM are ternary materials with nickel-cobalt-aluminum and nickel-cobalt-manganese components respectively.
In terms of pricing, the announcement said that the pricing model for the second half of the year would be determined in June and December each year on the basis of LME and MB prices, and the final contract shall prevail.
The amount of supply involved in this memo is not to be sniffed at.
According to Greenmae Annual Report, the company will ship about 41,500 tons of three-way precursors in 2020, of which the shipment of 8 and 9 series high-nickel precursors accounts for more than 50%, that is, more than 20,000 tons.
Exports of NCA9 series ultra high nickel precursors exceeded 18,000 tons, up more than 35% year on year.
This represents a three-year supply of nearly nine times the amount of high-nickel precursors shipped in 2020.
According to reports, Ecoprobm is a subsidiary of South Korea's EcoPro Corporation.
EcoPro is a company incorporated and existing under the laws of the Republic of Korea. Its main products are power battery cathode materials such as NCA and NCM.
At present, it is the global core manufacturer of high-nickel cathode materials, and the external core supplier of high-nickel cathode materials for Samsung SDI and other global core battery factories.
The increase of nickel content in cathode materials can improve the energy density of power batteries, and the decrease of cobalt content can reduce the cost. Therefore, high nickelization has become one of the development directions of power lithium battery industry.
At present, the mainstream of commercial application is 523 battery, and some enterprises have already applied 622 battery. However, there are a number of high nickel and low cobalt batteries in commercial use, and the trend is increasing. For example, the semi-solid battery released by NIO last year is also considered to be a high nickel battery.
"NCM and NCA high nickel precursor materials are the latest generation of high nickel precursor materials for ternary power batteries," Gremet said in the announcement. "The signing of this MU will effectively facilitate the large-scale expansion of the manufacturing capacity of NCM and NCA high nickel precursor materials."
To provide a strong international market guarantee for the company's ternary precursor production and sales of 100,000 tons in 2021 and 400,000 tons in 2025, and further establish the company's core position in the global market of high nickel ternary precursor materials.
In terms of production capacity, Greenmae implemented the construction of new high-nickel precursor capacity expansion project of 80,000 tons/year by raising capital through private placement last year.
The company also stated in the annual report that in order to cope with the general trend of nickel resource shortage caused by the development of high nickel and low cobalt precursors, the company decided to sign an eight-year long supply order with Liqin Resources, with the accumulative supply of no less than 74,400 tons of nickel metal raw materials and 9,296 tons of cobalt metal by-products, laying a solid foundation for the guarantee of nickel resources of the company in the future.
The company's main production area is Hubei province, which was greatly affected by the epidemic last year, and its performance was under pressure.
According to the annual report, in 2020, the company achieved operating income of 12.466 billion yuan, 13.15% less than the same period last year;
Net profit attributable to the mother was 413 million yuan, down 43.90% year on year.
However, in the first quarter of this year, the company resumed its growth trend, with revenue reaching a record high of 3.73 billion yuan, up 62.71% year-on-year.
Net profit attributable to the mother was 276 million yuan, up 150.42% year on year.
In the business target of Gremet in 2021, Gremet mentioned that it will comprehensively expand the production and sales of new generation of high-quality products.
The shipment of new generation precursors such as 8 series or above high nickel and low cobalt, high nickel single crystal, quaternary, cobalt-free and core-shell materials accounted for more than 70% and gradually reached more than 90%, completely leading the industry.
