As the main material of current collector of lithium battery, the downstream market demand of lithium battery copper foil is strong. At the same time, with the continuous improvement of the performance requirements of power batteries in the field of new energy vehicles, lithium copper foil is also developing in the direction of high density, low profile, ultra-thin, high tensile strength, high elongation, etc. , the application of thin copper foil can increase the energy density of the cell and reduce the unit consumption of lithium copper foil.

In the first half of 2020, due to the relatively low demand of new energy vehicles, the production and marketing of lithium-ion battery copper foil is not satisfactory, and many copper foil producers have switched to the production of standard copper foil. Since August, the new energy industry has gradually recovered, and the copper foil industry has also recovered rapidly. Production capacity for lithium-ion copper foil started in August and entered full production in mid-october. The existing stocks were depleted in just three months and the whole market began to show a tight situation of supply, recall has become a regular practice for battery manufacturers in recent months.

At the closing ceremony of the 2020 HIGH-TECH LITHIUM BATTERY & Electric Vehicle Annual Conference, experts said that the current copper raw material costs have risen, upstream supply has decreased, downstream demand has resumed growth, copper foil is under pressure of rising prices, and demand for lithium battery copper foil is tight, but new capacity is slower to release, lithium copper foil is expected next year will be in short supply. Copper prices exceeded 57,000 yuan per ton in December, up more than 37 percent from April, according to market data, and the industry expects 2021 to top 60,000 yuan per ton in the first quarter.

Copper foil is a negative electrolytic material, deposited on the substrate layer of a thin, continuous metal foil, which acts as the conductive body of PCB. It is easy to adhere to the insulation layer, accept printing protection layer, corrosion after the formation of circuit pattern.

The supply of copper foil for Lithium 2021 is tight and prices are soaring for several reasons:

(1)Supply side

From the point of view of supply, limited by equipment supply, Capacity Building, staff training, lithium copper foil production cycle is longer, generally up to 2-3 years, core equipment and process accumulation is the two main factors affecting its capacity expansion. According to the Copper Foil Association, the amount of new capacity that can be released from the 2021 is small, and the difference between total capacity and total demand is significant.

(2)Production perspective

From the production point of view, lithium copper foil exists the situation of cutting loss. First of all, copper foil technology is to add copper to sulfuric acid to get a solution of copper sulfate, and then injected into the foil machine, through the titanium roller plus Cathode, under the effect of electric field, the copper ion in copper sulfate is deposited on the surface of the titanium roller, and Peel it off to make copper foil for lithium battery production.

And one of the main equipments for producing copper foil is titanium roller. At present, almost all the high-end copper foil adopts titanium roller imported from Japan. The width of titanium roller of domestic equipment with over 95% production capacity is concentrated at the width of 1380 mm. The newly expanded titanium roller will have a part of 1.5 m width, but it's a small percentage. But when these lithium copper foil into the lithium battery production process, because the lithium battery manufacturers are not standardized, each manufacturer designed to improve efficiency, each manufacturer choose different lithium copper foil width. In order to improve the production efficiency, most battery manufacturers will choose 700-800 mm width of copper foil, often will be more than this width of copper foil cut, a master roll of the actual usable width of about 1300 mm, there is a discrepancy between the standard capacity and the actual supply.

Secondly, with the copper foil to ultra-thin direction, the production efficiency has gradually declined. The thinner the foil, its mechanical strength including the probability of wrinkles will be higher, easy to break band. Therefore, in order to continuous production, copper foil manufacturers will reduce the production current, production efficiency will be reduced accordingly.

(3) Competitive Industry perspective

From a competitive industry point of view, the standard foil market for lithium foil market is also limited. Copper foil is mainly used in copper foil for Circuit Board and Lithium battery. In the second half of the domestic lithium copper foil market recovery, the major copper foil manufacturers have to go back to the production of lithium copper foil.

At the same time, the external demand for standard copper foil has increased greatly. Under the influence of the epidemic situation, the foreign supply chain has been fractured, the domestic terminal products have been continuously overweight, and the market for standard copper foil has continued to heat up, especially for standard copper foil of 12 m and 15 M, because with lithium foil production capacity has a certain superposition, it is extremely hot. The price of the label foil continues to grow rapidly, and due to the use of 1280mm or 1290mm width, the label foil yield is higher, some manufacturers will also switch between the label foil and lithium copper foil according to the market price as the main body. As a result of these factors, the total supply of lithium 2021 copper foil is capped, and can not be broken in the short term, but the demand side of the growth is still very rapid, and once the supply and demand imbalance is serious, the price of copper foil for Lithium batteries is bound to soar.

At present, most copper foil manufacturers are in full capacity, high-quality capacity, especially the thin sheet of 6 m and below capacity into the tight balance between supply and demand. Experts said that 6M copper foil Market penetration continued to improve, has become the domestic power lithium copper foil market mainstream products. The projected 2020-2022 penetration rates are 60 per cent, 80 per cent and 90 per cent, respectively. By 2020,4.5 UM copper foil will be ready for mass production.

It is worth noting that the development of 4.5 m copper foil is more difficult, on the foil machine, cathode roller consistency and precision requirements are higher. At present, there are not many enterprises that can realize 4.5 m copper foil batching. 

Source: Changjiang non-ferrous Metal Net