Recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance jointly established a sub-fund for new energy vehicles, which will primarily invest in high-quality projects related to the upstream and downstream industrial chains of new energy vehicles, as well as those in the national technology transfer project database. Undoubtedly, with the financial support for new energy vehicles, the lithium battery industry, as an upstream player in the industrial chain, will benefit significantly, and the related lithium battery separator industry will also reap the rewards.
Although the cost of the separator accounts for only 20% to 30% of the battery cost, its performance directly affects the battery's safety, functional characteristics, cycle life, and reliability. Separators with good electronic insulation, ionic conductivity, chemical and electrochemical stability, thickness uniformity, and physical and mechanical properties are crucial for the safety of lithium batteries. For this reason, breakthroughs and development in key technologies of my country's separator industry are particularly valued.
According to relevant data, benefiting from the downstream demand for new energy vehicle batteries, the global lithium battery separator industry achieved a total output of 1.185 billion square meters and a value of US$2.075 billion in 2014, representing year-on-year increases of 41.58% and 12.18%, respectively. In my country, the national separator output reached 575 million square meters in 2014, accounting for approximately 48% of global output, with a value of RMB 2.05 billion. With the country vigorously promoting the development of the new energy vehicle industry, the explosive demand for power lithium batteries will extend to the upstream separator material industry, potentially alleviating the overcapacity problem in the materials sector.
Currently, my country's separator market is experiencing overcapacity, with total output projected to reach 2.3 billion square meters in 2015, far exceeding global demand for battery separators. However, 90% of high-end separators are imported, and the overall import rate exceeds 70%. Wu Hui, Research Director of CCID Consulting at the my country Electronics and Information Industry Development Research Institute, suggests that the separator industry should seize the favorable opportunity of rapid industrial development, continuously improve separator technology, and meet the demands of high-performance power lithium batteries and large-capacity energy storage batteries.
