全球锂电池电芯厂家并不多，只有10家。日本厂家虽然出货量低，但是单价远高于韩国和中国厂家。因为日本厂家笔记本电脑电池电芯（cells）所占比例非常高，而韩国和中国厂家通常都不生产笔记本电脑电池电芯，主要是手机和其他便携电子产品用电池，其单价远低于笔记本电脑电池电芯。

　　比亚迪也是唯一出货量和收入都下降的厂家，实际上比亚迪连续3年锂电池的出货量和收入都在下降，比亚迪对锂电池的重视程度已经远低于汽车。韩国厂家进展神速，三星SDI在2010年出货量预计将成为全球第一，但收入排名全球第四。LG化学则将成为全球第二。

   
　　由于低碳经济概念火热，引得动力锂电池备受世人关注。而动力锂电池目前出货量甚低，且厂家亏损严重，如A123系统和ENER1，亏损额比收入都高，且毛利率连续5年走低。投资这些盈利遥遥无期的公司与其说是投资不如是赌博。下游厂家业绩不佳，投资者集中在锂电池的上游，在中国市场，只要和锂电池上游有微小关联的股票都涨势凶猛。

　　锂电池产业链非常长，覆盖面甚广。锂电池有四种主要原材料，按所占成本比例依次是正极材料、隔离膜、电解液和负极材料。
   
　　正极材料是目前最火热的题材，非动力锂电池正极材料通常是钴酸锂。而动力锂电池正极材料分为锰酸锂和磷酸铁锂两大派系，日本厂家力主锰酸锂，并且已经推出数款采用锰酸锂电池的电动车。而美国和中国厂家热衷于磷酸铁锂，A123是磷酸铁锂的龙头厂家。磷酸铁锂在性能上异常优秀，同时安全性能也甚佳。但在工业化成熟度、成本、一致性上，锰酸锂远优于磷酸铁锂。由于电动车用的锂电池是数十甚至数百个电芯连接起来的，对一致性要求非常高，这是磷酸铁锂最难做到的。汽车整车大厂几乎全部都选择了成熟度高的锰酸锂，即便是磷酸铁锂最优秀的A123也在通用雪佛兰招标中失败，而锰酸锂大厂LG化学入选。整车大厂可不会为磷酸铁锂厂家做实验，在目前频频汽车召回的情况下，整车厂家都异常小心谨慎。即便是锰酸锂，成熟度也没有经过5年以上检验，更不要说磷酸铁锂。
 
　　目前正极材料主要厂家是日本和欧洲厂家。比利时的Umicore是年收入百亿美元的大公司，主要生产基地在韩国，2010年得益于韩国LG化学和三星SDI需求大增，Umicore超过日本日亚化学，成为全球第一大锂电池正极材料大厂，市场占有率超过30%。不过锂电池正极材料所占Umicore收入不到10%。日亚化学是全球第一大LED厂家，在2010年以前还是全球第一大锂电池正极材料厂家，市场占有率超过20%。由于锂电池正极材料种类繁多，因此参与厂家众多，尤其是日本厂家，户田工业、AGC SEIMI、SEIDO、田中化学研究所、JFE矿业、三菱化学、日东电工、三菱矿业、住友大阪水泥（SUMITOMO  OSAKA CEMENT）、日本化学工业等，日本厂家大约占正极材料50% 的市场。中国厂家则以当升科技、杉杉、瑞翔、金和、中信国安盟固利、巴莫科技为主，市场占有率11%。需要指出，电动车大厂比亚迪的磷酸铁锂采购自天津斯特兰。能够自制正极材料的锂电池厂家通常只有日本厂家。
 
　　隔离膜则是三巨头市场占有率超过75%，这三巨头分别是旭化成、东燃化学和Celgard。旭化成是日本化工大厂，年收入超过160亿美元，隔离膜贡献的收入不及该公司总收入的5%。东燃化学是日本炼油大厂，隶属全球第一大炼油大厂埃克森美孚，隔离膜贡献的收入不及该公司总收入的1%。Celgard则隶属美国Polypore 集团。
 
　　负极材料领域，日立化成市场占有率35%，全球第一，日立化成隶属日立集团，年收入近50亿美元。负极材料贡献的收入不及该公司总收入的3%。第二名是日本碳黑（Nippon Carbon），市场占有率近20%。不过负极材料非常成熟，关注度不高。
   
　　电解液领域，前三大厂家市场占有率近70%。全球第一大锂电池电解液厂家是韩国的第一毛织（Chiel Industries），该公司隶属三星集团，也是韩国最大的服装企业。同样受益于韩国LG化学和三星SDI需求大增，第一毛织在2010年超过日本的宇部兴产成为全球第一，市场占有率33%。宇部兴产是年收入60亿美元以上的公司，产品从铝轮毂到药品，从洗煤机到电解液，范围很广。第三第四名都是日本厂家，分别是三菱化学和富山药品（Tomiyama Pure Chemical）。而电解液最关键的原材料六氟磷酸锂基本上被日本厂家垄断：森田化学(Stella Chemical)、关东电化(Kanto Denka)和SUTERAKEMIFA。
   
　　与中国的锂电池上游厂家相比，国外的几乎都是清一色的超级大厂，年收入通常都超过10亿美元。中国的厂家通常都是新进厂家，靠银行贷款，年收入绝大多数都低于1亿美元。锂电池混合动力车或纯电动车推广速度缓慢，而中国锂电池上游产能已经开始过剩。

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There are only ten rechargeable lithium battery cell manufacturers all over the world. A large proportion of Japanese manufacturers are engaged in the production of laptop battery cells, while South Korean and Chinese manufacturers mainly focus on producing battery cells for cell phone and other portable electronic appliances, the unit prices of which are far lower than laptop battery cell’s. Therefore, Japanese manufacturers have smaller rechargeable lithium battery cell shipment but higher unit prices, as compared with South Korean and Chinese manufacturers.

BYD is the only manufacturer witnessing drop in both shipment and income for three consecutive years, and it has attached more importance to automotive than to rechargeable lithium battery. In the meantime, South Korean manufacturers have made rapid progress. Samsung SDI is projected to top the world by shipment and rank the fourth place by income in 2010. LG Chemical is likely to be in the second place.

   
Motive rechargeable lithium batteries have aroused wide attention due to the popularity of low-carbon economy concept. However, the shipment of motive rechargeable lithium battery is still low, and manufacturers are suffering serious loss. For example, A123 Systems and ENER1 have suffered deep loss, and the gross margin has dropped for five consecutive years. Thus, investing in these companies is highly risky, like gambling. The performance of downstream enterprises is not good, and the investment mainly concentrates on the upstream of the rechargeable lithium battery industry. In China, any stock with a few relations with the rechargeable lithium battery upstream will gain dramatically.

The rechargeable lithium battery industry chain is long and extensive. The four major raw materials for rechargeable lithium battery by cost attribution are anode material, separator, electrolyte and cathode material.

At present, anode material is the hottest topic. Non-power rechargeable lithium battery batteries usually adopt LiCo2O4 as anode material. However, the anode material of motive lithium battery is categorized into LiMn2O4 and LiFePO4. Japanese manufacturers mainly specialize in LiMn2O4, and have successively issued several electric cars with LiMn2O4 battery. Nevertheless, the United States and China’s manufacturers focus on LiFePO4, and A123 is a LiFePO4 leader. LiFePO4 is excellent in performance and safety, but it is inferior to LiMn2O4 in terms of industrialized maturity, cost and consistency. The rechargeable lithium battery of an electric vehicle is connected by tens even hundreds of cells, and hence has high consistency requirement which is rather difficult for LiFePO4 to achieve. Thus, nearly all large auto manufacturers select LiMn2O4 due to its higher maturity. Even A123, the leader in LiFePO4 battery field, also failed to win the Chevrolet tender. However, LG Chemical, a big LiMn2O4 battery manufacturer, had won the bid. Now, the frequent auto recalls make auto manufacturers behave extremely cautious that they won’t have a test for LiFePO4 battery manufacturers. Furthermore, the maturity of LiMn2O4 is no more than five years, let alone LiFePO4.

At present, the major anode material manufacturers are from Japan and Europe. Umicore is a large Belgium’s corporation with annual income of USD10 billion, and has main production bases in South Korea. In 2010, thanks to the sharp demand from South Korea’s LG Chemical and Samsung SDI, Umicore surpassed Japan's Nichia to become the world’s largest rechargeable lithium battery anode material company, with over 30% market shares. However, the rechargeable lithium battery anode material only accounted for less than 10% of Umicore’s income. Nichia, the world’s biggest LED manufacturer, also the world’s largest rechargeable lithium battery anode manufacturer by 2010, holds more than 20% market shares. Rechargeable lithium battery anode material has various categories, so there are many manufacturers involved in the field, especially Japan’s manufacturers such as Toda Kogyo, AGC SEIMI, SEIDO, Tanaka-Chem, JFE Mining, Mitsubishi Chemical, Nitto Denko, Mitsubishi Mining, Sumitomo Osaka Cement and Nippon Chemical Industrial, all of which have held around 50% shares. China’s major manufacturers include Beijing Easpring Co., Ltd., Shanshan Holding Company, Hunan Reshine New Material Co., Ltd., Ningbo Jinhe New materials Co., Ltd, CITIC GUOAN Mengguli and Tianjin B&M Science and Technology Joint-Stock Ltd., with total market share of 11%. BYD, a large electric vehicle manufacturer of China, purchases LiFePO4 batteries from Tianjin STL Energy Technology Co., Ltd. Now, only Japan’s rechargeable lithium battery manufacturers are capable of producing anode materials by themselves.

The separator market is dominated by three magnates, i.e. Asahi Kasei Corporation, Tonen Chemical and Celgard, with the total market shares exceeding 75%. As a big chemical plant in Japan, Asahi Kasei Corporation possesses annual revenue surpassing US$16 billion, but the separator business contributes less than 5% to its total revenue. Tonen Chemical, the big oil refinery in Japan, is subordinated to the global largest oil refinery-Exxon Mobil, and the revenue from separator accounts for less than 1% of the company’s total revenue. Celgard belongs to America’s Polypore International Inc.
 
As for the cathode materials field, Hitachi Chemical holds the world’s No.1 market share of 35%. Hitachi Chemical is a member of Hitachi Ltd. and its annual revenue is very close to US$5 billion, while the contribution of cathode business to the company’s total revenue is lower than 3%. Nippon Carbon ranks the second with the market share of nearly 20%. However, the market of cathode materials is very mature, and hence hasn’t gotten much attention.    
   
In regard to the electrolyte field, the top three manufacturers enjoy a total market share of approximate 70%. Subordinated to Samsung Group, Chiel Industries is the world’s largest manufacturer of rechargeable lithium battery electrolyte as well as the largest clothing enterprise in South Korea. Benefiting from the substantially increased demand of LG Chem and Samsung SDI, Chiel Industries surpassed Japan’s Ube in 2010 and became the global No.1 with the market share of 33%. Ube, whose annual revenue is more than US$6 billion, has a wide product scope, ranging from aluminum wheel hub to pharmaceuticals and from coal washer to electrolyte. Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemical and Tomiyama Pure Chemical take the third and fourth positions respectively. Lithium hexafluorophosphate, the vital raw material of electrolyte, is almost monopolized by Japanese manufacturers such as Stella Chemical, Kanto Denka and SUTERAKEMIFA.
   
Compared with the rechargeable lithium battery upstream manufacturers in China, almost all of the overseas manufacturers are super-big plants with the annual revenue usually surpassing US$1 billion. On the contrary, Chinese manufacturers are generally new entrants relying on bank loans and most of them have the annual revenue less than US$100 million. Rechargeable lithium battery hybrid vehicles or electric vehicles are slowly promoted, while the upstream rechargeable lithium battery industry in China has been confronted with overcapacity.