In 2024, will the battery recycling industry sweep the world?
The global challenges of environmental pollution and loss of critical metals from discarded lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have become prominent. According to statistics from the Ministry of Industrial Research, from January to February this year alone, nearly 40 lithium battery recycling projects have updated their status, with 37 sample companies, involving wet recycling of used lithium batteries, dismantling and crushing, echelon utilization, and new energy vehicle dismantling. solution and many other aspects.
According to industry agency estimates, the capacity of used power batteries that need to be recycled in my country is expected to reach 1.374GWh (960,000 tons) in 2025. At the same time, due to the shortage of strategic mineral resources in the upstream and the influence of various countries' policies in the midstream and downstream, the serious mismatch between supply and demand has led to significant fluctuations in raw material prices. The need to explore new technologies for power battery recycling and accelerate the layout of the power battery recycling industry has become increasingly urgent.
According to the prediction of large-scale power battery "retirement wave", the global power battery recycling industry will reach US$12.2 billion in 2025 and US$18.1 billion in 2030. China will be one of the largest power battery recycling markets. At the same time, lithium iron phosphate batteries are gradually emerging as the mainstream of the market, and their recycling market space is huge. According to predictions, domestic demand for lithium iron phosphate batteries will reach 2.112 million tons in 2025, with an average annual compound growth rate of 44%. In addition, it is estimated that from 2020 to 2030, the cumulative recycling space of ternary batteries will reach 130.5 billion yuan at current prices. With the arrival of the "retirement wave" of batteries, power batteries to be recycled are like a "rich mine" that is attracting a large number of investors.
Judging from the recycling price trend, from December 2023 to March 2024, waste ternary cylindrical batteries, waste ternary soft-pack batteries, waste ternary aluminum shell batteries, scrap iron lithium aluminum shell batteries, and scrap iron lithium steel shell batteries , scrap iron lithium soft pack batteries, scrap ternary cathode sheets, and scrap iron lithium cathode sheet prices basically show a "high, low, high" trend, and are likely to continue to rise. Although the development path of this industry has twists and turns, the bright future is ahead.