The market demand for wet separators is strong. my country is a major producer and consumer country.

Lithium battery separator refers to a battery material that can separate the positive and negative poles of a lithium battery and prevent the two poles from contacting and causing a short circuit. Wet process separators refer to lithium battery separators manufactured using wet processes. Compared with dry separators, wet separators have the advantages of good thermal stability, good mechanical properties, and good safety performance, and are widely used in high-end lithium battery products.

The wet process of lithium battery separator requires feeding, casting, stretching, extraction and other processes. Stretching includes two methods: step-by-step stretching and synchronous stretching. Synchronous stretching can make the membrane pores evenly distributed and have a higher porosity. The wet process can strictly control the quality and size of separators and is expected to become the mainstream production process for lithium battery separators. In 2021, my country’s lithium battery separator shipments reached 7.96 billion square meters, a year-on-year increase of 107.6%. In this context, wet separators, as a segmented product of lithium battery separators, have continued to expand the industry’s development space.

The main raw materials of wet separators are polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). As mainstream thermoplastic resin products, polyethylene and polypropylene have advantages such as corrosion resistance, heat resistance, and mechanical strength, and are widely used in many fields. Driven by market demand, my country’s polyethylene and polypropylene production capacity continues to expand, and output continues to rise. According to statistics from the China Chemical Economic and Technological Development Center, my country’s polyethylene production reached 22.72 million tons in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 11.8%. Benefiting from the sufficient supply of raw materials, my country’s wet separator shipments continue to grow. According to the “2022-2027 China Wet Separator Products Market Analysis Feasibility Research Report” released by the Industrial Research Center, in 2021 my country’s wet separator shipments exceeded 5.50 billion square meters.

Lithium batteries are the main demand side of wet separators, and new energy vehicles, electric bicycles and consumer electronics are their end markets. Lithium batteries have the advantages of long service life, high cell voltage, high energy ratio, and green environmental protection. As the prosperity of the new energy automobile industry continues to increase, the market demand for lithium batteries as power batteries is becoming increasingly strong. According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, my country’s lithium battery production reached 324.0GWh in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 106.0%. The rapid development of downstream industries has driven the development trend of my country’s wet separator industry to continue to improve.

There are many wet-process separator manufacturers in my country, and the industry is highly concentrated. The leading companies include Xingyuan Materials, Enjie Co., Ltd. and Sinoma Technology. Among them, Enjie Co., Ltd. occupies nearly 50.0% of my country’s wet-process separator market. Industry analysts said that my country is a major producer and consumer of wet separators, accounting for nearly 70% of the world’s production capacity. As the production technology of leading enterprises gradually develops and matures, the production cost of wet separators in my country will decrease and its output will continue to increase. Benefiting from the increasing prosperity of the new energy automobile industry, lithium battery shipments have shown a substantial growth trend, driving the growing demand for wet separators in my country.