In recent years, leaders in the titanium dioxide industry have launched epitaxy layouts. Following the lithium battery industry, they have successively aimed at the vanadium battery industry chain.
Layout of vanadium battery industry chain
On October 13, CNNC Titanium Dioxide announced that the company plans to invest in the establishment of Huili Vanadium Energy Mining Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Huili Vanadium Energy”) with a registered capital of 510 million yuan, and the company holds 100% of its shares.
The newly registered Huili Vanadium Energy is a further layout extension of CNNC Titanium Dioxide in the vanadium battery industry chain.
Earlier in July this year, CNNC announced that it signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sichuan Weilide Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Weilide”) for the entire industry chain of all-vanadium flow battery energy storage. At that time, the announcement showed that the two parties will conduct joint venture operations to build the entire industrial chain of all-vanadium flow battery energy storage, including but not limited to vanadium metal smelting and vanadium electrolyte manufacturing, all-vanadium flow battery energy storage system equipment manufacturing, new energy and construction of energy storage power stations, etc.
According to reports, Weilide is an industry-leading enterprise integrating the design, R&D, production, sales and service of all-vanadium redox flow energy storage systems. It has five production bases across the country and is the only all-vanadium redox flow battery R&D and manufacturing enterprise in the world with GW-level production capacity. The two parties will jointly establish a “Gansu Zetong Weilide Vanadium Material Co., Ltd. (subject to the industrial and commercial registration and verification name)” in Baiyin City. The main business includes vanadium electrolyte manufacturing, vanadium ore resource exploration and mining, and comprehensive utilization and development of vanadium resources. The overall production capacity of the joint venture vanadium electrolyte is planned to be 1 million cubic meters, and the first phase of construction is 300,000 cubic meters.
When joining hands with Weilide, CNNC stated that the two parties will focus on the development of vanadium ore resources in Gansu Province in the early stage, and make every effort to obtain high-quality vanadium ore resources at home and abroad. The acquired resources are all owned and operated by the joint venture company established by the two parties, and the business scope of Huili Vanadium Energy, which was established by CNNC Titanium Dioxide this time, includes mineral washing and processing; and metal ore sales.
According to CNNC Titanium Dioxide, the Panxi region is rich in vanadium and titanium resources, of which the reserves of titanium resources rank first in the world and the reserves of vanadium resources rank third in the world. Recently, the company signed the “Huili City Vanadium and Titanium Resources Integration and Development Project Cooperation Framework Agreement” with the Huili Municipal People’s Government. The Huili Municipal People’s Government will create a good investment environment for the company, provide high-quality services, and actively support the company to enjoy preferential policies for investment promotion. This foreign investment and establishment of Huili Vanadium Energy is an important strategic practice for the company to fulfill the above-mentioned cooperation framework agreement and deploy the resource business sector. The company plans to take Huili Vanadium Energy as the main body, relying on the rich vanadium and titanium mineral resources in Panxi, aiming at vertical integration of the industrial chain and comprehensive utilization of resources, to build a vanadium and titanium industry ecosystem.
Continuous development
Before this layout of the vanadium battery industry, as early as the beginning of 2021, CNNC Titanium announced that it planned to invest more than 13 billion yuan in Dongfang Titanium, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Baiyin, to build a project including an annual output of 500,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate. A number of projects, build a green recycling production system, expand the development of lithium iron phosphate products based on the main business, and get involved in the lithium battery industry.
CNNC Titanium Dioxide believes that the company has been deeply engaged in the industry where its main business is located for many years. After more than 20 years of industry leadership and technological innovation, on the one hand, the company has accumulated profound resources, experience, talents and technology in the research and development, production and sales of titanium dioxide by sulfuric acid method, which enables the company’s main products to maintain a high market share, performance return and development space for a long time; on the other hand, in order to further expand the development space, the company focuses on “resources, chemicals, new materials, new energy” four major businesses sector, and actively explore and deploy new development opportunities. While promoting the green coupled circular industry economy, the company will also accelerate the focus on the resource sector while building new and expanding production capacity for products such as lithium iron phosphate, vanadium electrolyte, and rutile titanium dioxide to reduce costs and increase efficiency and enhance core competitiveness, extend to the upstream of the industrial chain, realize the comprehensive utilization of the whole chain, and further tap the enterprise value.
As a leader in the titanium dioxide industry with a larger production capacity, LB Group has also frequently deployed in the new energy market in the past two years.
On October 13, LB Group disclosed that the company’s annual output of 200,000 tons of battery material grade iron phosphate project (the first phase of 50,000 tons/year of iron phosphate), and the annual output of 200,000 tons of lithium-ion battery material industrialization project (the first phase of 50,000 tons/year lithium iron phosphate) production lines have been completed and put into operation. Since the start of production, the output has increased month by month, and the quality has stabilized. At present, it has reached the standard and reached production.
In terms of the layout of the vanadium battery industry chain, in July 2022, LB Group announced that in order to promote the industrialization of vanadium extraction from the company’s iron ore concentrate, the wholly-owned subsidiary Longbai Sichuan Mining and Metallurgy Co., Ltd. plans to invest in the construction of an innovative demonstration project of V2O5 with an annual output of 30,000 tons of vanadium-ilmenite concentrate alkaline pelletizing wet process, with a total investment of 2.5 billion yuan.
LB Group said that the company’s vanadium titanomagnetite in Panzhihua is the largest vanadium titanomagnetite in China, and the vanadium resources are included in the iron concentrate for external sales and the titanium concentrate for the production of titanium dioxide. Part of vanadium oxides are extracted from waste acid in the production process of titanium dioxide, and vanadium resources in vanadium titanomagnetite are not fully utilized. The investment in this project will help the company make full use of the vanadium resources in Panzhihua vanadium titanomagnetite, improve the comprehensive utilization level of the company’s resources, and enhance the company’s competitiveness and profitability.
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