...one of the reason explaining the reason why EV growth in China to date has not led to much higher drawdown of excess lithium supply and hence lithium price has stayed subdued, is due to recycling of lithium efforts.
...In 2023, China recycled just 79k tons of LCE but in 7 years time, lithium recovery from recycling is expected to rise by almost 10 fold.
. According to Essence Securities, it is estimated that the total lithium recovery volume of decommissioned motive power batteries will reach approximately 165,000 tons of LCE in 2025 and the total lithium recovery volume of decommissioned motive power batteries will reach approximately 748,000 tons of LCE in 2030
China leads the world in battery recycling technologies, an important solution for addressing battery material shortages.
For instance, Chairman Zeng told the forum that CATL currently has the capacity to recycle as much as 99.6 per cent of precious metals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese, and up to 91 per cent of lithium, higher than Europe's capacity of 70 per cent to 80 per cent.
Last year, CATL recycled 100,000 tonnes of waste batteries through its subsidiary Brump to create 13,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate, he said.
