Mingguan New Material Yan Hongjia: From the material supply chain to solve the lithium battery industry chain security

The spring of soft pack batteries is accelerating. Compared with square aluminum shells and cylinders, soft pack batteries have natural advantages in energy density, while having the characteristics of slim body, strong customization and good safety. From a global perspective, whether it is Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Nissan and Volvo, or GM, Ford and Chrysler, a large number of PHEV/EV models on the market mostly use soft pack batteries.

In terms of battery suppliers, whether it is the domestic Fu Neng Technology, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Tianjin Shares, Jiewei Power, Wanxiang, Weihong Power, etc., or foreign LG New Energy, SKI and other manufacturers are actively working on soft pack batteries, even Ningde Times and BYD, which have always been the main square batteries, have also laid out soft packs.

Of course, unlike square aluminum shells and cylindrical batteries, the manufacture of soft pack batteries is inseparable from a key material, that is, aluminum-plastic film. According to industry estimates, in the next few years, it is expected that the demand for global soft pack power batteries will explode, which will greatly stimulate the demand for aluminum-plastic film. Some institutions predict that by 2025, the global demand for aluminum-plastic film will be about 820 million square meters, and this year the demand is expected to be about 260 million square meters.

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Localization of aluminum-plastic film is imminent

However, for a long time, aluminum-plastic film products have been monopolized by Japan and South Korea, and are the only basic materials in the lithium battery industry chain that have not yet been fully localized. Even now, most of the market share of aluminum-plastic film is still in the hands of Japanese companies. The data shows that in 2020, Japan's aluminum-plastic film products account for 3/4 of the global market, and the overall share of domestic aluminum-plastic film is only 1/4, and the space for domestic substitution is very large and urgent.

In fact, since last year, the industry has felt that most of the imported materials are in short supply, and the localization of various materials has accelerated. In fact, the existing aluminum-plastic film production capacity in Japan and South Korea is limited, the expansion speed is slow, and the release of production capacity cannot keep up with the rapid development of the global soft package industry. The procurement cycle of Japanese and Korean companies is long, the Forcast period is 3-6 months, and the accuracy of procurement is difficult. The industry generally reflects that its cooperation with customers is low, the response time is long, the efficiency is slow, and it is not as high as the cooperation of domestic manufacturers. Therefore, from the perspective of ensuring supply security, localization is imperative.

Yan Hongjia, chairman of Mingguan New Materials, believes that in the context of the current aluminum-plastic film is not fully localized, its safety has two meanings, the first is the application safety of the product itself, and the second is the safety of the supply chain. When the industry enters a period of rapid development, in the short term, if the aluminum-plastic film production enterprises are not ready, they will enter an unhealthy state, so at this time, enterprises must pay enough attention to the safety of applications.

Yan Hongjia said that due to the early days, when the domestic aluminum-plastic film enterprises did not have enough technical precipitation, in fact, there was some damage to the industry, resulting in insufficient confidence in domestic aluminum-plastic films. So for a long time, the domestic market aluminum-plastic film is in short supply and hot at the same time, which is very embarrassing. He believes that for today's domestic aluminum-plastic film, "we must first have self-confidence in making basic materials, and the second is to do things well, and the opportunity will definitely come."

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The loading mileage has exceeded 150,000 kilometers

In fact, after years of technological research and development innovation, there are already domestic enterprises of aluminum-plastic film products can be compared to imports to achieve domestic substitution, Mingguan New Material is one of the leaders. It is reported that Mingguan New Materials combined with more than ten years of experience in the development of dry composite, thermal film and adhesive, independent innovation to create a new dry and hot composite process technology. It not only breaks the technical monopoly of the same industry abroad, but also makes the complete localization of aluminum-plastic film a big step forward.

"There is no gap between the performance of the company's power and energy storage aluminum-plastic film products and similar foreign products; In terms of conventional stripping force, punching shell, heat sealing and other data indicators, as well as safety, reliability testing, etc., it has been comparable to foreign brands. The person in charge of aluminum-plastic film research and development of Mingguan New Material said that whether it is the product yield or the stability of the product batch, the aluminum-plastic film produced by the company is comparable to the imported products.

According to relevant media reports, the earliest battery made of Mingguan aluminum-plastic film, the longest use time of the current installed machine has been 4 to 5 years, and the total mileage of the vehicle has exceeded 150,000 kilometers, accumulating a large amount of valuable application data. So far, the aluminum-plastic film has 0 customer complaints, and it is also the first domestic aluminum-plastic film to verify the quality stability and safety in the mass production and operation of the real car.

It is understood that after a domestic battery company A began to use Mingguan aluminum-plastic film in 2017, the battery has been mass-produced and installed on the car, including Chery Commercial Vehicle, Chongqing Ruichi, Chengdu Dayun and other car companies passenger cars and special vehicles. Another domestic battery company, Company B, has successively used Mingguan aluminum plastic film products in batches in 2018 and 2019 in the China Railway Project and dongfeng Motor Passenger Car and Special Vehicle Project. In addition, Mingguan powered aluminum-plastic film has been used in a variety of models of multiple manufacturers in the past two years, and has been widely recognized by OEMs and battery factories.

"So I think this year car companies, battery companies are very open to actively evaluate our aluminum-plastic film, I think this is a very good opening, then this market will develop in a spurt, of course, the premise is that your products can pass." Yan Hongjia said. In terms of production capacity, Mingguan will have greater planning in the future. Obviously, Mingguan New Materials is ready to meet the outbreak of the aluminum-plastic film market.

From December 13th to 15th, Yan Hongjia, Chairman of Mingguan New Materials Co., Ltd., will attend the "6th International Summit on Power Battery Application (CBIS2021)" held in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, and will deliver a speech with the theme of "Material Supply Chain - Building the Cornerstone of Power Battery Safety System".