The individual parts are shredded to form granulate and this is then dried. The process produces aluminum, copper and plastics and, most importantly, a black powdery mixture that contains the essential battery raw materials: lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt and graphite.
The report, Commodities at a glance: Special issue on strategic battery raw materials, documents the growing importance of electric mobility and the main materials used to make rechargeable car batteries.
China will continue to be the major supplier of battery-grade raw materials over 2030, even though global supply of these materials will be increasingly diversified. Possible supply shortages will remain.
According to the report, investing more in green technologies that depend less on critical battery raw materials could help reduce consumers' vulnerability to supply shortfalls in the current mix of materials such as lithium and cobalt, but this would cut the revenues of the countries producing them.
However, it is likely that the EU will be import reliant to various degrees for primary and processed (batt-grade) materials. Australia and Canada are the two countries with the greatest potential to provide additional and low-risk supply to the EU for almost all battery raw materials.
The global demand for raw materials for batteries such as nickel, graphite and lithium is projected to increase in 2040 by 20, 19 and 14 times, respectively, compared to 2020. China will continue to be the major supplier of battery-grade raw materials over 2030, even though global supply of these materials will be increasingly diversified.