Battery separator shipment in China jumps 36% in 2020

Battery separator shipment in China increased by 36% in 2020 from a year prior, according to local research institute Gao Gong Industry Institute (GGII).

A total of 3.72 billion meter-square of separators were shipped in the country in 2020.

This is double that of 2 billion meter-square shipped in 2018, GGII noted.

Shipment of dry separators increased by 40% year-on-year in 2020 to 1.1 billion meter-square. Those of wet separators increased by 30% in the same time period.

Dry separators, which used made by pulling polyethylene or polypropylene films, are used in lithium iron phosphate batteries in China. Unlike wet separators, they are not coated.

Tesla is using LFP batteries for its Model 3 produced at the Shanghai Gigafactory.

This has likely increased usage of dry separators in China. The country also has a lot of electric cars and electric buses that use LFP batteries in general, which will likely expand dry separator shipment there even further.

South Korean and Japanese separator companies don’t focus on dry separators as much.

SK IE Technology only manufactures wet separators. Asahi Kasei acquired US-based Celgard in 2015, and acquired capacity to produce dry separators.

Wet separators are the premium product over dry separators, but companies still need to work to add additional values to them, a person familiar with the matter said.

They will need to make the separators thinner and apply new coating technologies to be more competitive, they added.