Lithium battery equipment, as an important part of battery production, has played an important role in modern manufacturing and is widely used in the production fields of power, energy storage, digital batteries and other products. It has effectively promoted the rapid development and upgrading of these industries, and assisted the development of more downstream consumer electronics, automotive manufacturing, photovoltaic wind power, communication and other industries.

 

(1) Industry development status

 

1) Large downstream market scale and rapid growth of lithium battery equipment market

 

From the perspective of consumer terminals, power batteries are still the main application market for lithium batteries. According to GGII's statistics, the power lithium battery market shipped 480GWh in 2022, accounting for 73% of the domestic lithium battery market share, far exceeding the other two major terminals; The shipment volume of energy storage lithium batteries is 130GWh, accounting for 19.8% of the domestic lithium battery market; In 2022, the shipment volume of China's 3C digital market was 48GWh, accounting for 7.3% of the domestic lithium battery share.

 

The rapid development of new energy vehicles has driven a rapid growth in the shipment volume of power batteries. In 2022, the domestic production of new energy vehicles reached 7.05 million units, a year-on-year increase of 96.9%; The overseas production of new energy vehicles exceeds 4 million, which has brought a huge driving force to the export of domestic power batteries. Driven by the power battery market, the domestic lithium battery market shipped 658GWh in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 101.1%.

 

According to data from the High Industry Research Institute (GGII), the market size of lithium battery production equipment (excluding module packs) in China in 2022 was 100 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 70.10%. Among them, the market size of lithium battery winding equipment was 12.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 56.3%; The market size of lithium battery lamination equipment reached 4.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 68%.

 

2) Domestic equipment technology continues to upgrade, and the localization rate of lithium battery equipment continues to increase

 

In recent years, driven by policies and the market, the domestic lithium battery equipment market has continued to grow in size, and industry enterprises have also increased their research and development investment. The technical level has been rapidly improved, and the performance gap between top equipment suppliers and advanced foreign equipment has been narrowing. Some enterprises have already surpassed Japan and South Korea in terms of equipment technology.

 

Domestic equipment is developed and manufactured based on the battery production process characteristics of lithium-ion battery production enterprises in China. It has stronger adaptability and pertinence, obvious cost-effectiveness advantages, more abundant production capacity, and timely and low-cost after-sales service response, which can fully meet the production and after-sales needs of customers. Therefore, in recent years, the localization process of lithium battery equipment has accelerated, and the localization rate has steadily increased. According to data from the High Industry Research Institute (GGII), the localization rate of lithium battery winding equipment has exceeded 98%.

 

3) Lithium battery equipment is developing towards the direction of "high precision, high efficiency, high stability, automation, and intelligence"

 

With the upgrading demand of downstream markets for improving the quality and cost of lithium batteries, battery manufacturers are also continuously improving their performance requirements for lithium battery equipment. In terms of stability, equipment stability has a significant impact on battery yield, and it also affects battery manufacturing costs, just like equipment production efficiency. The production process of lithium batteries is complex and involves a variety of production equipment. It is necessary to purchase equipment from different suppliers for each link of the production line. The degree of automation and intelligence of equipment in each link, as well as the integration of equipment between different links, will directly affect processing efficiency, overall qualification rate, and product quality.

 

In recent years, the lithium battery equipment industry has generally developed towards a higher level of automation and intelligence. With the continuous development of downstream industries, the automation level of production lines is constantly improving, processing efficiency is constantly improving, and product quality is also leaping. Automation and intelligence are effective guarantees for achieving high-precision, high-efficiency, and high stability in lithium battery production lines. At the same time, professional machinery in various processes is also transitioning towards the integration of multiple processes. On the one hand, it helps to enhance the consistency and coordination of production line equipment, facilitate equipment upgrading and intelligent management of production lines. On the other hand, it can achieve effects such as process collaboration, production rhythm collaboration, and intelligent product transmission. It helps to achieve equipment information interconnection and traceability throughout the production process, improving the rationality, controllability, and adaptability of the production process, Help enterprises efficiently allocate production resources and achieve lean production.

 

(2) Future Development Trends of Lithium Battery Equipment Industry

 

1) The domestic power lithium battery market, energy storage market, and digital battery market will continue to grow rapidly, and lithium battery equipment has broad market development space

 

In the future, the domestic power lithium battery market, energy storage market, and digital battery market will continue to grow rapidly. According to GGII's prediction, the domestic power lithium battery market's shipment volume in 2025 will be 1300GWh, with a compound annual growth rate of 39.39% from 2022 to 2025. The sustained strong growth momentum is the core driving force for the growth of the domestic lithium battery equipment market; In 2025, the shipment volume of domestic energy storage lithium battery market will reach 430GWh, with a compound annual growth rate of 49%. The market growth rate will exceed that of the power battery market, and the explosive growth of energy storage market demand will become a new growth point in the lithium battery equipment market; It is expected that digital batteries will resume stable development in the next few years, and the shipment volume of digital batteries is expected to reach 75GWh by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 16%.

 

Driven by the demand for new energy vehicles, energy storage, and consumer electronics in the downstream of the lithium-ion battery industry, leading domestic and foreign battery manufacturers are accelerating their expansion, bringing a large amount of market space to lithium-ion equipment manufacturers.

 

According to the expansion plan of major lithium battery manufacturers, the planned lithium battery expansion capacity is not less than 2009 GWh. In addition, multiple domestic digital battery companies and energy storage battery companies have also planned expansion plans of varying scales. The value of the company's main lithium battery winding equipment/lithium battery lamination equipment accounts for approximately 35% -40% of the value of the intermediate process equipment, and there is an opportunity to fully share the equipment dividends brought by this wave of expansion.

 

At the same time, due to the continuous progress of downstream lithium-ion battery technology, the energy density, battery life and other parameters of lithium-ion batteries continue to improve, putting forward higher requirements for the process and technology of lithium-ion battery equipment, prompting battery manufacturers to update old equipment. In the future, against the backdrop of a significant increase in demand for downstream lithium-ion battery expansion and equipment updates, domestic high-quality lithium-ion battery equipment enterprises are expected to usher in broad market space.

 

2) Lithium battery enterprises accelerate their overseas layout and drive the mass export of lithium battery equipment

 

With the acceleration of global carbon emission policies, a group of Chinese lithium battery companies with the ability to "go global" have successively built factories and laid out in overseas regions such as Europe and Southeast Asia. Enterprises such as BYD, Ningde Times, and Yiwei Lithium Energy have settled in Germany, Hungary, Malaysia, Thailand, and other places, providing customers with nearby supporting services while also enhancing the international competitiveness of related enterprises and products. At present, the domestic production rate of lithium battery equipment is relatively high while exports are relatively low. With the accelerated overseas layout of Chinese lithium battery enterprises, it is expected to drive the expansion of domestic lithium battery equipment overseas.

 

3) Downstream customers may add new technological routes, bringing new equipment growth needs

 

With the price fluctuations of lithium-ion battery cathode materials such as lithium cobalt oxide, lithium manganese oxide, and lithium iron phosphate in the past few years, some industry enterprises have begun to explore new technological routes, such as incorporating sodium ion batteries into their future product layout. At present, due to the low cycle life and energy density of sodium ion batteries, they are only in the early stage of small-scale industrialization. If the technology route gradually matures in the future, sodium ion batteries are expected to become a new mainstream battery and develop new market demand, which will bring new equipment batch demand.

 

From the existing production routes of sodium ion batteries, the universality of sodium battery equipment and lithium battery equipment is relatively high. In the future, if production enterprises increase their process routes and produce sodium ion batteries, leading lithium battery equipment manufacturers will rely on their years of technological advantages, experience accumulation, and cooperation with downstream customers, and are expected to quickly adjust and meet the equipment needs of downstream customers.