2019 PREVIEW: NCM811 batteries ‘not likely’ to be in EVs

• Autores: Industrial Minerals
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 607, 2019 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Febrero)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Battery types that use less nickel - such as NCM523 (nickel, cobalt, manganese in a ratio of 5:2:3) and NCM622 (nickel, cobalt, manganese in a ratio of 6:2:2) - are likely to prevail in the EV industry in 2019, even though the persistent strength of cobalt prices from late 2016 until early 2018 forced battery manufacturers to focus on innovations in nickel-rich battery types last year.Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt benchmark price - used by Chinese cobalt producers to calculate raw materials import costs - moved up quickly after 2016, reaching a 10-year high at $43.70-44.45 per lb in April 2018. Since mid-April 2018, the price of cobalt has shown a significant downtrend. [...]the price premiums that lithium hydroxide carried over lithium carbonate last year added to the overall production costs for NCM811 lithium-ion battery materials. “Even if cobalt prices rebound in 2019,” the third battery materials producer said, “given the current cost [of] lithium hydroxide and other production costs, producing NCM622 batteries is still more economically practical than NCM811 batteries.”