Cobalt consumption field keywords "multiple"

The field of batteries has become an important growth driver for promoting cobalt consumption in the country. Other areas such as cemented carbide, magnetic materials, glass pottery, and catalysts have been relatively stable. Experts expect that domestic cobalt consumption in 2014 will be 41,000 tons, which will increase by 17% year-on-year. %. The main application areas are batteries, smart electronics, ternary materials applications, new energy vehicles, and carbide alloys.

According to statistics, in 2014, cobalt consumption in the lithium cobalt oxide industry was approximately 27,000 tons, an increase of 28.6% year-on-year; cobalt consumption in the ternary materials sector was approximately 4,650 tons, a substantial increase of 106.6% year-on-year. Hydrogen storage alloys and ball nickel remain stable in consumption of cobalt. The data shows that China's lithium cobalt oxide production has increased steadily, but its share has declined. At present, the domestic production capacity of lithium cobalt oxide is 60,000 tons. It is estimated that the output in 2014 will be 45,000 tons, and the market share of lithium cobalt oxide will decline, mainly due to the substitution effect of ternary materials.

The electronics market began to cool down. In 2014, the overall growth rate of global smartphone and tablet shipments slowed down. It is noteworthy that the share of Chinese smart phone manufacturers has been greatly improved, which also contributes to the domestic consumption of lithium cobalt oxide.

The output of ternary materials increased rapidly. At present, the main application area of ​​ternary materials is laptop computers, followed by tablet computers, mobile phones, mobile power supplies, and again electric tools and electric bicycles. Ternary materials are currently the most promising market in the industry, and they are most likely to be used on a large scale in new energy electric vehicles and energy storage batteries in the future. The development momentum has been strong in recent years. The production of ternary materials has increased rapidly. The output in 2014 is expected to reach 31,000 tons, an increase of 55% year-on-year.

China’s new energy automobile policy is positive. Affected by the favorable policy of exemption from purchase tax, the output of new energy vehicles in China this year was a pleasant surprise. From January to September, the country produced 38,522 new energy vehicles and sold 38,163 vehicles, an increase of 2.9 times and 2.8 times over the same period of last year. In particular, it produced 22,000 vehicles in September, a year-on-year increase of more than 20 times and a chain growth of 284.47%. This is the first time that China's new energy vehicle monthly production exceeded 10,000 vehicles, and it is also the highest record in history. Assuming that 5% of the global car sales are new energy vehicles, this would require 250,000 tons of cathode material, which would consume about 23,000 tons of cobalt metal.

The consumption of cobalt in the cemented carbide industry has increased. Cobalt consumption in the field of hard alloys is mainly used in products such as hard alloys, hardfacing materials, and hard alloys. According to statistics from the Cemented Carbide Branch of China Tungsten Industry Association, the output of cemented carbide in the first half of 2014 was 13,000 tons, and it is expected to reach 25,000 tons in the whole year. The consumption of cobalt in the hard alloy field in 2014 is expected to be 2,876 tons, a year-on-year increase of 9.1%. At the same time, cobalt consumption in the high-temperature alloy field has increased significantly. Superalloys are mainly used in aviation and aerospace applications. The major increase in the production of high-temperature alloy steel was mainly due to the large market for military product development and equipment localization. In the first nine months of 2014, the production of superalloy crude steel was 10,462 tons, and the annual production was expected to reach 14,000 tons. The consumption of cobalt was estimated at 1,200 tons, a substantial increase of 71.4% year-on-year.

New energy automotive applications are gaining momentum. At present, the leading domestic cathode material production is dominated by lithium cobaltate and ternary materials, and the output of lithium iron phosphate and lithium manganate have increased slowly. With the new energy vehicles ready to go, it is driving a new wave of expansion in the field of lithium cathode materials.

According to experts' estimates, driven by the growth in production of cobalt chemicals, it is estimated that global cobalt production in 2014 will be 90,600 tons. By 2018, global cobalt production will increase to 100,000 tons, with an average annual growth rate of approximately 7%; With a consumption of 86,800 tons, global cobalt consumption will increase to 110,000 tons by 2018, with an average annual growth rate of approximately 6%. The global cobalt market will start to fall short of supply in 2017, and the gap in 2017 will be about 7,000 tons. By 2018, the gap may reach 8,000 to 10,000 tons; from 2014 to 2018, the global cobalt price will show a slowly rising trend, but it is difficult to reach the high point of 20 US dollars/lb. The MB cobalt price is expected to rise slightly in 2015, the average price At 14 to 14.5 USD/lb.