China's lithium-ion battery recycling market is with great potentials and tough challenges at the same time, on the backdrop of low-carbon transition which has halved China's carbon intensity over 2005-2021, though it was still distance away from the ultimate target, suggested by Li Haitao, deputy secretary general of Technical Committee of New Energy Battery Recycling.
According to institutional research, the carbon emission from the transportation sector took up around 12% of the total in China, and 87% of which was contributed by road transportation, highlighting the significance of promoting electric vehicles.
Coming along with the swift development of electric vehicles is the urgency to establish a profound and sophistic recycling system. It is expected that by 2027, China will see a total of 1.14 million tonnes retired power batteries.
Source: Mysteel
To facilitate the establishment of a healthy and efficient recycling system, China has introduced a series of policies, including Management Measures for Comprehensive Utilization of Electric Vehicle Power Batteries (Draft for Comments) that is expected to be officially launched by the middle of 2024 based on past practice.
Industrial standardization is also of key importance, that covers the administration, design, production, scraping and recycling, repurposing, and regeneration of lithium-ion batteries applied to electric vehicles, energy storage systems, electric bicycles, ships, drones, etc.
In addition, China has set up over 10,000 battery recycling outlets across the country, with more on the way.
Lastly, China has now approved 148 whitelist recycling companies (8 are recognized for both repurposing and battery scrap recycling businesses) with over 2 million tonnes scrap recycling capacities, and nearly 1 million tonnes repurposing capacities.
Looking ahead, domestic top-tier battery recycling companies, like Huayou Cobalt, GEM, Brunp, will actively explore the overseas market amid serious short supply of battery scrap in China.
And China will further improve the domestic administration system to not only support the China recycling market, but also help to narrow the policy gap with overseas market.
Written by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com
