【SMM Analysis】Dry Separator Prices Expected to Bottom Out

SMM News, April 17: In recent years, the competition in the dry-process separator industry has intensified, leading to losses in the dry-process separator sector. According to an SMM market survey, the prices of mainstream dry-process base film products have fallen to low levels, with the average quotes for 14μm/16μm at 0.46 yuan/m² and 0.43 yuan/m², respectively. Some order transaction prices have even dropped to 0.4 yuan/m². This predicament stems from the vicious cycle of industry surplus and price wars over the past three years. In 2024, the actual domestic demand for dry-process separators was only 4.6 billion m², while the capacity reached 8.3 billion m², resulting in a capacity utilization rate of less than 60%. In July 2024, the Central Politburo meeting explicitly proposed "strengthening industry self-discipline and preventing cut-throat competition," providing direction for the stable and long-term development of various industry chains. Against this backdrop, the China Plastics Processing Industry Association recently issued the "Initiative on Promoting the Healthy Development of the Battery Separator Industry," calling on enterprises to abandon short-sighted behaviors such as low-price competition and blind capacity expansion, and shift to a high-quality competition model centered on technological innovation and quality improvement. Facing the continuous loss pressure caused by losses, dry-process separator enterprises have shown a strong sentiment to stand firm on quotes after the New Year. Internal personnel from multiple enterprises stated that the current price range has fallen to the industry cost line, and the long payment collection period poses operational risks if maintained for a long time. The "volume discount" model is unsustainable. To this end, top-tier enterprises are attempting to stabilize market expectations by actively reducing capacity. Industry insiders revealed that with the increase in battery demand and the active control of capacity by upstream dry-process separator manufacturers, the supply-demand relationship is expected to improve. Based on cost considerations, the dry-process separator market has at least a 10% price increase potential. The dry-process separator industry is undergoing a transformation from "scale expansion" to "value competition." Under the combined forces of policy guidance, industry self-discipline, and enterprise technological innovation, the strategies for short-term price recovery and long-term technological dominance have gradually become clear. How to balance capacity and deepen technological barriers will become the core proposition for the industry to move towards high-quality development. SMM New Energy Research Team Cong Wang 021-51666838 Xiaodan Yu 021-20707870 Rui Ma 021-51595780 Disheng Feng 021-51666714 Yujun Liu 021-20707895 Yanlin Lyu 021-20707875 Zhicheng Zhou 021-51666711 Haohan Zhang 021-51666752 Zihan Wang 021-51666914 Xiaoxuan Ren 021-20707866 Jie Wang 021-51595902 Yang Xu 021-51666760 Zhaoyu Wang 021-51666827

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【SMM Analysis】Dry Separator Prices Expected to Bottom Out

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