Ecopro, Last Year’s No.1 in Ternary Cathode Materials... Chinese Companies Close Behind

SNE Research Report

EcoPro was ranked first last year in the global ternary cathode material market, including Nickel Cobalt Manganese (NCM) and Nickel Cobalt Aluminum (NCA). L&F and LG Chem also ranked 4th and 5th respectively, confirming the strong presence of Korean companies in the ternary cathode material market.

However, Chinese companies, which had an advantage in Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) cathode materials, are closely chasing Korean companies in the ternary market as well. In the first quarter of this year, a Chinese company overtook EcoPro to claim the top spot in the ternary market.

According to the report titled "2024 Q1 Lithium-ion Battery (LIB) Four Major Materials Quarterly Market and Supply Chain Management (SCM) Analysis" published on the 17th by energy sector market research firm SNE Research, the shipment volume of lithium secondary battery cathode materials in 2023 reached 2,938,980 tons. Among these, LFP cathode materials accounted for about 53% with 1,568,000 tons.

In the overall cathode material market combining ternary and LFP, China's Hunan Yuneng shipped 507,000 tons, ranking first. Following were Dynanomic (China) with 214,000 tons in second place, and Hubei Wanrun (China) with 164,000 tons in third place.

In the ternary market, EcoPro (including EcoPro BM and EcoPro EM) shipped 120,000 tons, ranking first. Chinese Longbai shipped 99,500 tons, ranking second, and Chinese B&M (B& M) shipped 95,000 tons, ranking third. L&F shipped 86,000 tons and LG Chem shipped 74,000 tons, ranking fourth and fifth respectively.

In the first quarter of this year, Chinese Longbai shipped 26,000 tons in the ternary cathode material market, taking first place, while EcoPro was pushed to second place with 25,000 tons. Longbai is understood to have expanded its market share by supplying high-nickel NCM cathode materials to China's CATL.

In the LFP market in the first quarter of this year, Hunan Yuneng maintained first place by shipping 136,000 tons.

SNE Research explained, "In the future, ternary cathode materials are expected to see development and expanded production of high-voltage mid-nickel cathode materials," adding, "In the LFP market, Chinese companies CATL, BYD, and Gotion are successively announcing product development and mass production of Lithium Manganese Iron Phosphate (LMFP) batteries, so competition in technology and price is expected to become even more intense."