Shanghai Energy to construct world’s largest wet process separator production base 04-13-2018

China is predicted to account for over 60% of the world‘s wet process separator production, with more than 10 billion square meters capacity. The largest supplier in the country has announced to build the largest production base, strengthening China’s leading role in the new energy industry.



 


In the past, global lithium battery separator markets are shared by Japan, America, South Korea, and China mainly. However, China adopts a large sum of investments in recent years for lithium battery manufacturing, which supports the goal to become the leading nation in the new energy market. 


In 2016, Shenzhen Senior Technology Material sold 120 million square meters of dry-process separators, ranking first in China, followed by Cangzhou Mingzhu Plastic and Xinxiang Zhongke. In 2016, the sales leader of wet-process separator came to Shanghai Energy New Materials and it sold 100 million square meters, with customers covering Samsung, LG, BYD, and CATL. In 2016, the top three by wet-process separator sales in China was Shanghai Energy, Suzhou GreenPower, and Foshan Jinhui Hi-tech Optoelectronic. 


On March 19, 2018, Shanghai Energy held a signing ceremony for its new materials project in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province. Reportedly, this project, located in Xishan Economic & Technological Development Zone with a total investment of USD789.24 million, is aimed at constructing 16 imported fully automated separator manufacturing lines, 40 coating lines and 5 imported aluminium-plastic film production lines, and establishing a premium marketed separator R&D centre. When the project is finished and put into operation, Shanghai Energy will become the world's largest wet process separator producer. 


Shanghai Energy, founded in 2010, is mainly producing wet process separator and functional coating separator for Li-ion battery. It has over 20 patents regarding technologies for Li-ion battery separator, separator deformation inspection equipment. Many of the indicators reach the international advanced levels. Under the circumstance that many domestic separator producers have not yet achieved mass production, Shanghai Energy is now running 6 production lines. Meanwhile, it has 3 production bases respectively located in Shanghai, Dongguan and Zhuhai, combined production capacity at 320 million m2/a. To date, Shanghai Energy has established stable partnerships with many famous battery manufacturers such as LG Chem, BYD and Guoxuan High-Tech and has become the only certified supplier to Samsung SDI in China. 


According to market intelligence firm CCM, China's energy storage battery market developed vigorously in recent years. In 2017, the output of energy storage batteries increased by 13% YoY, and the corresponding output value was rising up by 7% YoY. Though its future potential is predictable, the energy storage battery market is still restricted by relevant policies, pricing, electricity supply, among others. That is to say, energy storage batteries are still applied in a small range of areas. Its production capacity and growth rate both remain relatively small. Currently, the China-made energy storage battery is mainly used in communication base station, user-side peak shaving, off-grid power station, micro-grid, rail transit and UPS. 


The battery separator industry in China is showing an incredible growth currently. This trend will lead very likely to a domination of this industry in the whole separator industry in the near future. 


Digital electronic products take a huge part of the daily life of almost everyone nowadays. Also, alternative energy experiences a high level of demand throughout the world. These developments lead to the fast-growing Lithium-Ion battery market, especially in China, because it is used a lot in the high-end digital market as well as in the power battery market. Related to the growing Li-ion battery market, the whole separator industry is seeing an increasing demand worldwide, leading to a fast increase in this industry. 


According to CCM, China’s Li-ion battery separator industry will experience a huge change in the new future, preferring the usage of wet process separators for production instead of dry process separators. The market furthermore will be mainly determined by a growth of the power market, the high-end digital market as well as the trading. 


About the article

The information for this article comes from CCM, China’s leading market intelligence provider for the fields of agriculture, chemicals, food and feed. 

 

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