The market price has rebounded, and the lithium battery anode industry is experiencing a new round of expansion.

Against the backdrop of the continuous explosion of the global new energy industry, the lithium battery anode material sector is experiencing a new round of capacity expansion boom.

Recently, the Development and Reform Bureau of Huayang District, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province issued a notice stating that "The 80,000-ton lithium battery negative electrode material integrated production line project of Huizhou Betair New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. has completed the review and been approved." The project is expected to have a total investment of 550 million yuan. The construction period is from March 2026 to December 2027. The project plans to build an annual production capacity of 80,000 tons of negative electrode materials.

In addition, the Natural Resources Bureau of Guzhang County, Fujian Province, released the "Public Notice on the Planning and Design Scheme for the Annual Production of 200,000 Tons High-Performance Lithium Battery Anode Materials Project", with a total investment of 5 billion yuan. The Guian New District Management Committee of Guizhou Province and Guangdong Kaijin New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. signed a contract, and the annual production of 200,000 tons of anode material integrated project was implemented in Guian New District.

Meanwhile, as the next-generation core technology, the silicon-carbon anode is also accelerating its penetration into consumer end-use scenarios.

Recently, Moon Sung-Hoon, the executive vice president of Samsung Electronics, stated that Samsung Electronics is preparing for silicon-carbon negative electrode battery smartphones and will launch them at an appropriate time. "Newer technologies like silicon-carbon negative electrodes must pass through the company's very strict quality inspection and certification; once Samsung believes that the silicon-carbon negative electrode battery can ultimately improve the customer experience, the company will also consider this option," he said.

From the production capacity layout at the upstream of the industrial chain to the technological application at the downstream end, the lithium battery negative electrode material industry is presenting a dual-drive pattern of "large-scale expansion of traditional production capacity + commercialization of silicon-carbon technology".

01

Both market volume and price have risen simultaneously.

Driven by the dual forces of the new energy vehicle and energy storage markets, the lithium battery market is booming. According to data from the South Korean market research institute SNE Research, the global installed capacity of electric vehicle batteries in 2025 reached 1187 GWh, with a year-on-year growth of 31.7%. The growth in the energy storage market is even more vigorous, with global energy storage battery shipments reaching 640 GWh in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 82.9%.

Head battery manufacturers have actively and orderly expanded production, and the upstream industry chain has stabilized and rebounded. As the core upstream link, the market for negative electrode materials has shown a vigorous trend of rising quantity and price, as well as accelerated technological iteration. Industry analysts believe that the global lithium battery market is expected to maintain a good growth momentum in the future, and this will drive the rapid development of the upstream negative electrode material market.

According to statistics from industry organizations, the global production of negative electrode materials is expected to reach approximately 31 million tons in 2025, with a year-on-year growth of over 40%. During the same period, the sales volume reached 30.6 million tons, clearly demonstrating a balanced supply and demand situation. What is particularly noteworthy is that China's dominant position in the global negative electrode materials industry has further strengthened. In 2025, China's production of negative electrode materials accounted for 99% of the global total, and its sales volume accounted for as high as 98.4%, almost monopolizing the global market supply.

In terms of price, after experiencing a downward cycle in 2023, the market price of negative electrode materials dropped significantly from the peak of 56,000 yuan per ton to the bottom of 22,000 yuan per ton. Since 2025, with the dual demand from the battery power and energy storage markets resonating, the price of negative electrode materials has steadily rebounded. As of early March 2026, mid-range artificial graphite negative electrode materials reached 2.6 yuan per ton, and the price of high-end products could reach over 33,000 yuan per ton.

"At present, the downstream customers have a high demand for negative electrode materials, and the company's production capacity utilization rate is at a relatively high level. With the continuous recovery of prices, the gross profit margin has also improved significantly. In the future, the company will actively and steadily advance the project construction based on the market and customer demand forecasts." A domestic negative electrode material manufacturer stated.

02

Silicon-carbon anode accelerates industrialization

When "range anxiety" remains the core pain point hindering the advancement of the new energy vehicle market, high energy density battery technology becomes the inevitable path for the industry to break through. And silicon-carbon anode material is precisely the key to unlocking the era of high energy density.

The current mainstream lithium batteries mostly use graphite as the negative electrode. Its theoretical specific capacity of 372mAh/g has approached the physical limit, making it difficult to meet the longer driving range requirements of new energy vehicles. The emergence of silicon-carbon materials has broken this constraint. Its theoretical specific capacity is as high as 4200mAh/g, which is more than 10 times that of graphite materials.

Technical breakthroughs in the industrial sector are accelerating their implementation. Many enterprises have already established their own development pace in the silicon-carbon anode field. According to Xiangfenghua, the company has been continuously researching in the field of silicon-carbon anode technology, aiming to enhance energy density and cycle life. The first-generation silicon-carbon anode product has a specific capacity of 1800mAh/g, with a first-time efficiency of ≥90%; the second-generation anode product has a specific capacity of 2100mAh/g, with a first-time efficiency of ≥93%.

Zhongke Electric has focused on the cutting-edge direction of solid-state batteries. In areas such as silicon-carbon anode and lithium-metal anode, they have carried out research and product development. Among them, the silicon-carbon anode material has completed the construction of a pilot production line, and the products have passed the evaluation of multiple customers, preparing to enter the mass production introduction stage.

Binhai Energy has also kept up with the industry's pace. Its silicon-carbon anode products have entered the customer testing and introduction stage, and are just one step away from commercialization. Binhai Energy stated that the company is actively promoting the research and development of silicon-carbon anode materials, and currently the products are in the stage of customer testing and introduction.

As a device manufacturer, Haomi Star has achieved this by leveraging its innovative ultra-thin multi-layer coating technology, reducing the coating thickness of the silicon-carbon anode to 7.5μm - 15μm. Compared to traditional processes, this represents an over 80% reduction in thickness. It has precisely solved the industry challenges of ultra-thin and composite coating for high-silicon-based anodes, clearing key manufacturing obstacles for the large-scale application of silicon-based materials.

"By embedding silicon materials into the carbon-based framework, the energy storage capacity per unit mass of the electrode has been significantly enhanced, laying a solid material foundation for the leapfrog growth of the driving range of new energy vehicles," an industry insider analyzed, stating that silicon-carbon anodes will become one of the core technologies for the next generation of high-energy-density batteries.

With the continuous advancement of technology, the silicon-carbon anode industry is now approaching a crucial turning point from the "introduction stage" to the "mass production ramp-up stage". Currently, silicon-carbon anodes are no longer just a theoretical concept in the laboratory; instead, they are gradually being applied in various scenarios such as new energy vehicles, energy storage, and consumer electronics, accelerating their progress towards the goal of becoming "the next mainstream anode material".