5G New Infrastructure Spawned New Blue Sea For Lithium Batteries? China Mobile And China Tower Are Placing Orders.

5G has been commercialized since 2019, and now the pace of construction is further accelerated. And behind the accelerated pace of 5G construction, lithium batteries will become the new blue ocean.

Recently, China Mobile announced the successful bid for the centralized purchase of lithium iron phosphate batteries in 2020, and 8 companies won the bid.

"5G base station batteries used to be lead-acid batteries, while 5G construction was replaced by lithium iron phosphate batteries. The three operators build lithium batteries for 5G, and they are very large. " Battery manufacturers revealed to the twenty-first Century business reporter.

China Mobile confirmed to the twenty-first Century economic report reporter that in March of this year, the lithium battery procurement tender project was mainly used in the transmission convergence room and 5G base station. In addition, a China Mobile tendering official told the twenty-first Century economic news reporter that the project can meet the construction of China Mobile 5G base station this year.

Over 1 billion 300 million yuan purchase list

With the introduction of the new infrastructure, operators have been ready to build the 5G base station this year, and the original "ammunition" is indispensable.

In March of this year, China Mobile announced the tendering announcement for the centralized purchase of lithium iron phosphate batteries for telecommunications in 2020. The purchase of lithium iron phosphate battery for communication is 610 million 200 thousand Ah (specification 3.2V), and the purchase demand is satisfied for one year. Among them, Jiangsu Zhongtian Polytron Technologies Inc bid price is 1 billion 292 million yuan, winning bid share is 18.85%; Jiangsu Hai Si Da power Limited by Share Ltd bidding price is 1 billion 328 million 600 thousand yuan, winning bid share 15.94%; Shuang Deng group Limited by Share Ltd bidding price 1 billion 422 million yuan, winning bid 14.49%; Huizhou Yiwei Li can bid price of about 1 billion 373 million yuan, win the bid share 13.04%; Zhejiang Nandu The power supply Limited by Share Ltd bid price of about 1 billion 359 million yuan, winning the bid share of 11.59%; Shenzhen Xiong Tao power Limited by Share Ltd bidding price of 1 billion 409 million 800 thousand yuan, winning the bid share of 10.14%; Harbin Guangyu power Limited by Share Ltd bidding price 1 billion 397 million yuan, winning bid 8.70%; Dongguan Li long battery technology Co., Ltd. tender price of about 1 billion 454 million yuan, the winning bid share 7.25%.

Among the eight lithium battery manufacturers, the Zhejiang Nandu power Limited by Share Ltd has released the winning bid. Publicity said, "Nandu power supply is one of the winning units of the project, the company's tender price is 1 billion 359 million yuan (excluding tax), the winning bid share is 11.59%, corresponding to the winning bid amount is about 158 million yuan (excluding tax)." It is estimated that the total volume of China mobile lithium battery centralized procurement project is about 1 billion 359 million yuan.

"It is not yet clear whether there will be new tender for lithium batteries, depending on the demand for procurement. In principle, procurement is a year." A China Mobile tendering official told the twenty-first Century economic news reporter that from the current target, it has basically met China Mobile's 5G base station construction this year.

Statistics show that as of now, China Mobile has built 140 thousand 5G base stations, including 286 base stations in the 286 key areas of epidemic prevention and control.

China Mobile pointed out to the twenty-first Century economic news reporter that at present China Mobile has completed the tendering of the world's largest 5G two wireless network main equipment and SA core network equipment, and has fully resumed the construction of 5G, and has made every effort to rush ahead with the construction period, and strive to complete the target of accumulative 5G base station number 300 thousand in 2020, so as to ensure that 5G business services are provided throughout the country in all cities at the prefecture level or above.

Lithium battery intensive procurement

In addition to China Mobile's purchase of large orders, recently, the lithium battery purchase list of the telecommunications industry continues.

In March 11th, China Tower Limited by Share Ltd (hereinafter referred to as "China Tower") issued the "procurement announcement for the intensive purchase of electric power lithium iron phosphate batteries in 2020", bidding for the purchase of 2GWh lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Subsequently, according to the twenty-first Century economic report reporter combing, China Tower in Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Xiamen, Chengdu and other sub branches have announced the comparison announcement. As of early May, China's tower has released 38 lithium battery procurement tenders this year, and the purchase amount is expected to exceed 1 billion 500 million yuan.

It is important to note that the purchase of China's tower has been paving the way for a long time. As early as 2018, the China Tower issued the notice on stopping the purchase and replacement of lead-acid batteries. It required that the lead-acid batteries should be stopped in accordance with the 6 year stock replacement cycle, and the new and replacement batteries should be converted to vehicle batteries or new lithium iron phosphate batteries.

China Unicom and China Telecom announced this year that they will jointly assemble not less than 250 thousand 5G base stations, and plan to complete the whole construction progress in the first three quarters of this year. Based on the base station construction scale of China Mobile and the purchase list, the scale of lithium battery purchase between China Unicom and China Telecom is expected to exceed 1 billion 100 million yuan.

In fact, as the power consumption of 5G base stations is greatly improved, the use of backup power to peak and valley filling, thereby reducing the cost of electricity charges, will become the standard function of 5G base stations. Compared with the traditional lead-acid batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries will be a better choice.

Orient Securities research team in a lithium iron phosphate industrial chain report pointed out that "with the continuous decline in the cost of lithium batteries, the market price of lithium iron phosphate batteries for energy storage has been explored for 0.68 yuan /Wh, even without considering the role of peak shaving, the total life cycle cost of lithium ion batteries on 5G base stations has far exceeded that of lead-acid batteries."

The report points out that after testing, every 5G base station's new lithium iron battery can carry out 2 full peak to flat valley switching every day, which can save electricity by 10 thousand and 400 yuan / year, and save more than 2554 yuan per year on lead-acid batteries. The calculation of 7 million 600 thousand 5G base stations in 2025 saves 19 billion 400 million yuan annually.

In addition, the communications industry insiders pointed out that compared to lead-acid batteries, LiFePO 4 battery life is longer. "Lead acid battery cycle life is 3-5 years, charge and discharge times are 500-600 times, LiFePO4 battery life is up to 10 years, charge and discharge times are more than 3000 times, which means that LiFePO4 battery can cover the whole life cycle of 5G base station."

"The construction of 5G base stations is expected to exceed expectations this year, achieving the construction of 680 thousand 5G base stations, and completing the construction of 7 million 600 thousand base stations in 2025," the Orient Securities research team points out. "The logic of recovery of lithium iron has been verified on the power battery. Now, in the era of 5G communication base station energy storage, the lithium iron battery will play a greater role."

(Intern Huang Jiamin contributed to this article).

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