The supply gap of lithium battery grade PVDF is large and the industry development prospects are good

PVDF is polyvinylidene fluoride, which has high temperature resistance, weather resistance, chemical corrosion resistance, oxidation resistance, and also has thermoelectric properties, piezoelectricity and other special properties. PVDF has a wide range of applications. It can not only be used in coatings, photovoltaics and other fields, but also plays a major role in batteries. Lithium battery-grade PVDF is a high-end product with high performance requirements. However, with the rapid development of the lithium battery industry in recent years, the market demand for lithium battery-grade PVDF as a cathode binder has increased accordingly, accounting for 1% of the total demand for PVDF. The ratio reached 22%.

According to the “Global Lithium Battery Grade PVDF Industry In-depth Market Research and Key Area Research Report 2021-2025” released by the Industrial Research Center In terms of the application of PVDF, benefiting from the development of the new energy automobile industry, PVDF, as an important production material for lithium batteries, has become one of the markets with the fastest growing demand for PVDF. Therefore, the development prospects of the lithium battery-grade PVDF industry are good. In 2020, my country’s total demand for PVDF will be approximately 50,000 tons, of which the demand for lithium batteries will be approximately 10,000 tons. It is expected that in the next five years, the application of PVDF in the lithium battery field will benefit from the development of the new energy vehicle industry. Demand shows a rapid growth trend and will reach about 73,000 tons by 2025.

Compared with ordinary PVDF, the technical barriers to the lithium battery-grade PVDF industry are higher, and the certification cycle for lithium-battery-grade PVDF is longer. Although domestic PVDF production capacity has grown rapidly in recent years, due to production technology, the growth of lithium battery-grade PVDF production capacity is limited, and it is difficult to convert ordinary PVDF into lithium battery-grade PVDF in the short term. Therefore, the domestic lithium battery-grade PVDF supply shortage is getting worse. .

In terms of market competition, foreign-funded companies such as Kureyu, Arkema, and Solvay currently occupy the domestic market. However, foreign-funded companies lack R142b supporting production capacity and are limited by raw materials, making it difficult to expand production capacity in the short term. Due to the good development prospects of the lithium battery-grade PVDF industry, it has also attracted the deployment of domestic enterprises. Domestic companies such as Funuolin Chemical, Sanaifu, Xia Shenzhou, and Zhejiang Juhua have entered the industry. However, due to technical limitations, domestic lithium battery-grade PVDF will not be available in the short term. It is difficult to achieve substantial growth in production capacity and output. At present, my country’s supply of lithium battery-grade PVDF is approximately 6,000 tons, of which Dongyue Group has a production capacity of 0.3 tons. Affected by factors such as high technical barriers and long production expansion cycles, the supply gap of lithium battery-grade PVDF will be difficult to fill in the short term, and the tight supply situation in the PVDF market will continue.

Industry analysts said that as a high-end product, lithium battery-grade PVDF has higher technical requirements and less production capacity and output at home and abroad. Driven by the development of the downstream new energy automobile industry, the market demand for lithium battery-grade PVDF continues to rise, and the shortage of domestic lithium battery-grade PVDF has become increasingly serious. However, as foreign-funded enterprises are subject to raw material supply constraints and local enterprises are subject to technical restrictions, domestic lithium battery-grade PVDF production capacity and output are difficult to increase in the short term, and the shortage of lithium battery-grade PVDF supply may continue until 2022.