2024-03-21 22:00:00
The three major “core players”, Taiwan Cement, Formosa Plastics and Hon Hai, are challenging the field of battery cells and trying to make their own way in China’s Red Sea market. (Photo/Photo by Zhou Zhilong, Huang Weibin, Zhao Shixun, Xinhua News Agency)
With artificial intelligence (AI) taking the spotlight, Taiwan’s technology industry is quietly engaging in the third wave of battery renaissance. As global manufacturers and governments compete for the autonomy of strategic materials “the new petroleum of the future generation”, the three giants, Taiwan Cement Corporation, Formosa Plastics, and Hon Hai, the leading traditional production companies, have also become “chip players” and have gone overseas to challenge the battery industry. The most difficult piece, that is, the “battery core” of the midstream process, is regarding to bear fruit this year.
Each of these three companies has its own merits. Hon Hai intends to cooperate with local businesses in Kaohsiung to build an electric vehicle industry cluster. TCC targets top European and American users and enters into international “100% green electricity” battery factories. In addition to fully localizing Taiwan’s battery industry chain, Formosa Plastics also There are “urban mining” ambitions for recycling alchemy.
Under the new game rules of the European Union’s new battery law launched this year, which strictly requires the production history and recycling capabilities of battery products, China’s new energy vehicles, which are currently unstoppable, have begun to face the dilemma of short and expensive batteries of their own. NIO Chairman Li Bin On the 16th, at the “China Electric Vehicles 100 Forum”, he declared that “it is urgent to solve the battery life problem.”
What seems to be a strict tightening curse has actually become an “alternative blessing” for Taiwanese manufacturers, which is expected to break through the “core opportunities” in the Red Sea market of Chinese manufacturing.
TCC takes the international route and cooperates with the Canadian government to build a “100% green electricity” battery factory, with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau personally supporting the project. (Photo/Provided by TCC)
According to industry insiders, Taiwan was once a big battery country, with the world’s top five downstream battery module factories, such as Xinpu (6121) and Shunda (3211), both companies with revenue of tens of billions, but midstream battery cells, Upstream battery materials cannot compete with Japanese and Korean manufacturers in terms of quality, and they cannot compete with Chinese manufacturers in terms of price, leaving a huge gap in the industrial chain.
“Because battery cells are an industry with high investment, high technical threshold and high risk,” an industry insider told CTWANT reporters. He said that the first wave of battery boom in Taiwan was in 1994. Domestic consortiums successively invested in the establishment of nickel-metal hydride battery factories. The second wave I invested in lithium iron batteries in 2008, but it was still difficult to operate.
Now is the third wave. In response to the global battery shortage due to the rise of electric vehicles, manufacturers will choose big brands because cars require higher safety. “If Taiwan has its own ‘national team’ and the price does not differ too much, of course it will give priority to MIT.” Industry insiders do not shy away from saying that they hope the government will help promote policies.
According to the latest global power battery market statistics from SNE Research, a Korean research institution, global power battery installed capacity in January 2024 was 51.5GWh. Chinese battery leader CATL accounted for as much as 39.7% of the global market, strongly occupying the first place, followed by BYD. 14.4%, South Korea’s LG’s 11.4%, Japan’s Panasonic’s 5.9%, and South Korea’s Samsung’s 4.8%. Among the top ten, 6 are Chinese manufacturers.
“The growth trend of electric vehicles does not seem to be changing, and we are very confident to face this fiercely competitive environment.” Hon Hai (2317) held a press conference on the 14th. In addition to the turbulent AI, Hon Hai Chairman Liu Yangwei mentioned The second priority is the electric vehicle business. The brain of an electric vehicle is the chip and the heart is the battery. Hon Hai Battery Center in Kaohsiung Hofa has launched the first Made in Taiwan power battery cell and will begin mass production in the fourth quarter of this year. , with a production capacity of up to 1.2 GWh (million kilowatt-hours).
In addition to Hon Hai’s super battery factory that will be mass-produced this year, in order to create a complete domestic battery industry chain, Formosa Plastics has invested in Taiwan’s largest 5GWh lithium iron phosphate battery cell factory, located in Changbin Industrial Zone, which will also be completed this year put into production.
In addition to AI dividends, Hon Hai’s super battery factory will be mass-produced this year, and its stock price has soared recently. (Picture/newspaper file photo, taken from Yahoo stock market)
Liu Huiqi, general manager of Formosa Plastics New Intelligence, told CTWANT reporters that Taiwan’s battery market is still growing for three major reasons. The first is to change the existing lead-acid batteries into environmentally friendly and durable lithium iron batteries, and the second is to use renewable energy to Energy storage systems to strengthen the resilience of the grid, and the third is mainstream bulk electric vehicle applications. The demand for the first two alone reaches more than 7.2GWh per year. The combined output of all battery factories in Taiwan is not enough to cope with the domestic market. The product technology and goals of each factory Customer groups and application areas are also differentiated, so there will be no internal competition issues.
TCC is taking an international route. Its subsidiary Sanyuan Energy Technology has built Taiwan’s first super battery factory in Xiaogang, Kaohsiung. The two factories have a total production capacity of 3.3GWh. TCC and CTWANT reporters said that they are mainly targeting “new technologies”. “Artisan market, a rapidly developing product customization market,” targets 1% of the world’s top battery customers, including eVTOL, electric supercars, electric heavy-duty vehicles, etc. The main markets are in Europe and the United States.
In November last year, its battery factory Molicel announced that it would invest 25.5 billion yuan to jointly build the country’s largest high-performance ternary lithium battery cell factory with the Canadian government. It boasted that “100% use of green electricity” would start construction at the end of this year. It is expected to be put into production in 2028, with a production capacity of 2.8GWh. On the day of the announcement, Canada’s handsome Prime Minister Trudeau also stood up in person.
TCC said that the excess production in mainland China is relatively low-end batteries, which has no impact on Molicel. The battery industry must move towards internationalization, and “carbon competitiveness” is the key. Invest in low-carbon batteries in Canada, and the development situation of global transnational carbon tariffs , which has the advantage of reducing costs.
The EU’s new battery law that took effect in February strictly regulates and requires disclosure of the “full life cycle” carbon emissions of battery products sold in Europe. In the future, it will also set an upper limit for the carbon footprint of the battery life cycle. TCC said that so global indicators In addition to competing for energy and power density among battery brands, “carbon competitiveness” has also become an important indicator. South Korea’s LG, Germany’s Volkswagen and Sweden’s Northvolt, founded by former Tesla executives, have all invested in building pure green battery cell factories. Molicel will become the fourth benchmark brand in the world that can provide pure green batteries.
Liu Huiqi, general manager of Formosa Plastics New Intelligence, said that its battery recycling technology is complete. (Photo/Photo by Huang Yaozheng)
Although the EU’s new battery law has “thresholds”, there are also “new business opportunities.” Liu Huiqi told CTWANT reporters that before Formosa Plastics New Intelligence planned to produce batteries, Chairman Wang Ruiyu emphasized the need to prepare a battery recycling system in advance, and will use the recycling system Incorporated into the new energy industry chain, Formosa Plastics New Intelligence’s battery recycling technology is already complete, and there are also specific production line plans. The new production history or battery recycling specifications for the international market have long been standards established internally by Formosa Plastics New Intelligence, and they are also Formosa Plastics New Intelligence has advantages that distinguish it from other manufacturers.
Liu Huiqi said that in the future, the scraps, defective products produced during the production process of Formosa Plastics New Smart Changbin Battery Cell Factory, as well as the used batteries following sale can be recycled, and even batteries from other manufacturers can be recycled to extract the precious contents. Reusing metals to make new batteries is like “urban mining”, which avoids digging out natural mineral resources and promotes circular economy and environmental sustainability.
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