1. What is Lithium copper foil ？

According to different application fields and power specifications, Electrolytic copper foil It can be divided into lithium battery copper foil (6-20 μ m), standard copper foil (12-70 μ m), and ultra thick copper foil (105-420 μ m). Lithium battery copper foil is mainly used in the field of lithium ion batteries, and standard copper foil and ultra thick copper foil are mainly used in PCB boards of different powers.

Copper foil is the core material of negative collector of lithium battery, and the production process, cost and final product performance of lithium battery are closely related to the performance of positive and negative collector, that is, aluminum foil and copper foil.

According to different application fields and power specifications, electrolytic copper foil can be divided into lithium battery copper foil (6-20 μ m), standard copper foil (12-70 μ m), and ultra thick copper foil (105-420 μ m). Lithium battery copper foil is mainly used in the field of lithium ion batteries, and standard copper foil and ultra thick copper foil are mainly used in PCB boards with different power.

In the production process of lithium battery, the cathode paste is usually coated on the copper foil of lithium battery, and then through drying, rolling, slitting and other processes, to obtain the cathode plate of lithium battery.

According to the industrial chain of lithium battery copper foil, lithium battery copper foil is mainly used for the manufacture of lithium battery cathode, and lithium battery is mainly used for new energy vehicles, 3C digital and energy storage systems.

2. Current industry analysis of lithium battery copper foil

At present, the main countries producing copper foil in the world include China mainland, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the United States and other countries, but in terms of high-end electrolytic copper foil, production technology, equipment manufacturing technology and market share are monopolized by Japan. The world's major high-end electrolytic copper foil suppliers include Mitsui Metal, Japan Energy, Kowa Electric, Fukuda Metal and Japan Electrolysis.

According to the data of Gaogong Lithium Battery, the global production of lithium battery copper foil will reach 177000 tons in 2019, with a year-on-year growth of 21.2%. It is expected that the domestic production of lithium battery copper foil will grow to 217000 tons in 2020, with a growth rate of 22.6%.

From the capacity and output data of the global copper foil material industry, the capacity increased from 591000 tons in 2011 to 177000 tons in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 1.35%

Although the global production capacity has basically not increased in recent years, the industry's output is steadily increasing, and the capacity utilization rate is also gradually increasing, from 60% in 2011 to 85% in 2019, which shows that the industry's supply is slowly shifting from surplus to stable supply and demand in previous years.

In 2019, affected by the slowdown of production and sales growth of downstream new energy vehicles and the thinning trend of copper foil thickness, the growth of copper foil production slowed down, but still maintained a high growth trend of more than 20%. According to the data of Gaogong Lithium Battery, the global production of lithium battery copper foil will reach 177000 tons in 2019, with a year-on-year growth of 21.2%. It is expected that the domestic production of lithium battery copper foil will grow to 217000 tons in 2020, with a growth rate of 22.6%.

According to the proportion of copper foil output of various types in recent years, the proportion of lithium battery copper foil output was only 5.98% in 2011, and increased to 20.20% in 2016. Before 2016, The development of China's copper foil industry mainly benefited from the steady growth of the PCB industry (the compound annual growth rate of 10% of the PCB industry in recent years and the compound annual growth rate of 8% of the domestic copper foil industry output basically conform to this conclusion) and the development of the 3C lithium battery field.

From the perspective of subdivided application fields, the growth rate of electronic circuit copper foil has declined year by year from 2013 to 2015, and the industry has recovered and increased in 2016; Lithium battery copper foil benefited from the development of traditional 3C lithium batteries during 2012-2015, and the growth rate remained at about 30%. Although the growth rate declined in 2015, with the development of the power battery industry with higher demand for copper foil (3C batteries need about 80000 tons of copper foil per GWH, and the demand for power batteries is about 1000 tons, and the unit demand increased by about 12.5%), In 2016, the growth rate increased again to about 40%.

However, since 2016, the industry pattern has changed, and the growth rate of the traditional 3C digital market has gradually slowed down, with the CAGR of 6.05% in the past five years; The energy storage market grew rapidly, with CAGR of 31.57% in the past five years; Driven by the rapid development of the new energy vehicle market, the power battery industry has become the strongest growth segment, with a CAGR of 66.87% in the past five years.

Behind this growth, the main reason is the vigorous promotion of new energy vehicles caused by policy support worldwide.

The battery pack of each car consists of dozens to hundreds of cells. The conductive metal layer in the core affects the safety, while the active material layer determines the storage capacity. In order to improve the battery performance, we must vigorously improve the performance of active materials, and at the same time devote ourselves to improving the space utilization.

Therefore, we expect that the explosive growth of the domestic new energy vehicle industry will drive the rapid development of the lithium battery industry. As one of the important parts in the lithium battery, copper foil will also grow rapidly with the development of the lithium battery industry in the future.

In addition, although the global output of copper foil in China has accounted for more than 50% in recent years, the production capacity of high-end copper foil in China is still insufficient. Although the import volume has been decreasing year by year in recent years, the import proportion is still around 30%. In terms of export, the export volume of copper foil in China has declined year by year in recent years. From the data of import and export unit price, China's current copper foil mainly imports high-end products and exports low-end products.

To sum up, domestic demand for high-end copper foil, especially high-end lithium battery copper foil, is still dominated by imports. Therefore, it is expected that in the future, domestic copper foil enterprises with strong technical strength are expected to gradually seize the domestic high-end copper foil market and realize import substitution.