BYD to become shareholder for Sichuan Shuneng Mineral Investment Co., Ltd that registered USD $79 millions, other shareholders include BYD, Sichuan Road and Bridge, Sichuan Energy Power, Mabian Yi Autonomous County Harvest State-owned Assets Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as “Harvest”).
Major battery players such as CATL, BYD participate in mining activities in 2021 to seize control over supply chain, in response to soaring price in raw materials.
According to Sichuan New Energy, main business operations for Shu Can Minerals include phosphate ore exploration and mining and processing in and around Mabian Yi Autonomous County, phosphate resources investment, lithium iron phosphate new materials project investment and others.
Phosphorus is indispensable for lithium materials.
Demand for downstream lithium materials pushed for supply for upstream raw materials such as phosphate ore, ammonium phosphate and phosphoric acid.
Note that the nature of phosphate ore is non-renewable and scarce, countries establish policy restriction on exports.
As data show that the price for lithium iron phosphate in January is USD $5,821/t, as of December 27 the price is USD $15,576/t. The overall annual rise of 167.57%. At the same time, the 2020 lithium iron phosphate production capacity of 320,000 tons, by December 2021 lithium iron phosphate production capacity is estimated to reach 920,000 tons, showing doubling in growth.
