China top 10 lithium battery separator suppliers best list
What is a lithium battery separator? And the performance of the lithium battery separator
The lithium battery separator is a porous film used to isolate the cathode and anode to prevent the short circuit caused by the cathode and anode reactions when the ionization reaction occurs, but it does not affect the passage of lithium ions through the film. Its performance and quality directly determine battery charging and discharging efficiency, cycle life, battery capacity and safety performance.
Lithium battery separator performance
| Characteristics | Function |
| Insulation | Isolate the cathode and anode to prevent battery short circuit |
| Chemical stability | High corrosion resistance, improve the service life of the battery separator |
| Thermal stability | Reduces the risk of separator melting due to high temperature |
| Tensile Strength | Prevent separator deformation |
| Porosity | Larger porosity can improve charge and discharge efficiency |
| Thickness | Reducing the thickness can reduce the internal resistance, thereby improving the charge and discharge performance |
| Puncture strength | Prevent lithium branches and burrs from causing battery short circuit |
Types and comparison of lithium battery separators
According to the process classification, there are two main types of separators: dry method and wet method. Dry-process separator mainly produces PP film. After decades of development, the process is relatively mature. It is specifically divided into uniaxial stretching and biaxial stretching. The wet method separator mainly produces PE film.
The separator is mainly used in the 3C field, mainly for top 10 3C consumer lithium battery manufacturers in the early stage of lithium-ion battery development. It has low requirements for energy density and battery capacity, and does not require high-current charging and discharging. Therefore, dry-process diaphragms are more suitable.
Dry separators vs wet separators differences comparison
| Indicators | Dry separators | Wet separators |
| Main raw materials | PE | PP |
| Tensile strength (kg/cm²) | 1500 | 150 |
| Puncture resistance (gf) | 600 | 250 |
| Thickness (μm) | 5μm – 30 μm | 12μm – 30μm |
| Thickness consistency | Better | Poor |
| Porosity consistency | Better | Poor |
| Thermal stability | Poor | Better |
| Production Process | Higher difficulty | Low difficulty |
| Application field | High-end power battery, 3C battery | Medium and low-end power battery, 3C battery, energy storage battery, etc. |
| Cost | Higher | Lower |
Top 10 lithium battery separator suppliers in China best list
| Number | Companies |
| 1 | Shanghai SEMCORP |
| 2 | SENIOR |
| 3 | Sinoma Lithium Battery Separator |
| 4 | ZIMT |
| 5 | GELLEC |
| 6 | PTL |
| 7 | JINHUI HI-TECH |
| 8 | HORIZON |
| 9 | HUIQIANG NEW ENERGY |
| 10 | HongTu Separator |
Shanghai SEMCORP
| Established date | April 27, 2010 |
| Company location | Shanghai, China |
| Registered capital | 389.210834 million RMB |
| Company website | www.semcorpglobal.com |
Shanghai SEMCORP is a new energy company with the largest sales volume of lithium-ion battery separators in the world. It is one of the leading top 5 wet process separator companies and an industry leader in high-performance wet-process separators and high-end functional coating separators.
Shanghai SEMCORP has now entered the supply chain system of most mainstream lithium battery manufacturers in the world. The company’s customers include: Panasonic, Samsung, LG Chem, three global leading lithium battery companies, and China’s top 10 lithium ion battery manufacturers such as CATL and BYD.
SENIOR
| Established date | September 17, 2003 |
| Company location | Guangdong, China |
| Total market value | 25.301 billion RMB |
| Company website | http://www.senior798.com/ |
SENIOR has a comprehensive product layout, covering dry, wet and coated separators. Among them, SENIOR has been deeply involved in the field of dry-process separators for many years; it has accumulated a lot and grown rapidly in the field of wet-process separators.
On February 21, 2023, the commissioning ceremony of the first phase project of SENIOR Nantong Base was successfully held. The Nantong project has a total investment of 11 billion RMB. It is planned to build an annual production capacity of 3 billion square meters of wet-process separators, 1.6 billion square meters of dry-process separators and supporting coated separators.
According to the company’s strategic plan, while speeding up the construction of Nantong Base and Foshan Nanhai Base, SENIOR will build eight major separator manufacturing bases around the world at the same time as it will deploy in the EU, ASEAN and China. It is estimated that the annual production capacity of the company’s separator will reach 16 billion square meters in 2027, accounting for about 30% of the global market share.
Sinoma Lithium Battery Separator
| Established date | March 10, 2016 |
| Company location | Shandong, China |
| Registered capital | 4176.065017 million RMB |
| Company website | http://www.cnbmlbs.com/ |
Sinoma Lithium Battery Separator specializes in R&D, production, sales and technical services of high-performance lithium battery separators. The main products are 5-20μm wet bidirectional synchronously stretched separators and various coated separators, which are used for power batteries, 3C consumer batteries, energy storage battery companies and other fields.
The company has built four fully intelligent wet-process bidirectional synchronous stretching lithium battery separator production lines with a width of 4m and a speed of 50m/min. The whole process of production is intelligently controlled, and the quality of products in all processes can be detected and traced online in real time.
The performance of the lithium battery separator produced is excellent and stable, which ensures the high safety, high cycle life and excellent electrochemical battery performance.
EnerSys
| Established date | August 21, 2012 |
| Company location | Guangdong, China |
| Registered capital | 95.824153 million RMB |
| Company website | http://www.zimt.com.cn/ |
ZIMT is a Chinese high-tech enterprise specializing in R&D, production and sales of lithium-ion battery separators. ZIMT currently has an annual production capacity of 600 million square meters of dry-process uniaxially stretched diaphragms and 160 million square meters of coated separators.
In 2021, after the second phase of the Wuhan production base is put into operation, the company’s annual production capacity of dry-process uniaxially stretched membranes will reach 1 billion square meters, and it will become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of dry-process unidirectionally stretched membranes.
The company specializes in dry-process separator products with a thickness of 10-20 μm, including ZC series and ZM series. Ceramic separators and PVDF coated separators have fully covered domestic energy storage, power, two-wheeled vehicles, electric tools and other application markets.
GELLEC
| Established date | February 5, 2010 |
| Company location | Hebei , China |
| Total market value | 4.92 billion RMB |
| Company website | http://www.gellec.com/ |
GELLEC produces lithium battery wet separators and coated separators, etc., with an existing production capacity of 650 million square meters per year. GELLEC can customize various wet-process diaphragms according to customer needs, including ultra-thin diaphragms, high-strength diaphragms, and high-porosity diaphragms.
On July 5, 2022, the GELLEC separator with a thickness of 3 μm was officially mass-produced. The 3μm separator developed by GELLEC uses ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene raw materials, and the needle punch strength of the product can reach the conventional 5μm level. Under the premise of ensuring safety, it can better meet the needs of lithium batteries for high energy density.
PTL
| Established date | November 6, 2012 |
| Company location | Shanghai , China |
| Total market value | 67.455 billion RMB |
| Company website | https://www.putailai.com/ |
PTL has three major businesses including anode materials and graphitization, membrane materials and coating, and automation equipment. PTL is the world’s largest third-party separator coating company, and has entered the supply system of major global battery manufacturers such as CATL, ATL, BYD, LG, and Samsung SDI.
In terms of base film business, PTL’s production capacity and shipments in 2021 will be 50 million square meters per year, and it is being put into large-scale production and construction.
PTL is the largest independent coated separator processor in China. In the first half of 2021, Putailai’s coated separator processing shipments were 798.39 million square meters. The company’s separator business strives to form a separator coating capacity of more than 4 billion square meters and 6 billion square meters in 2022 and 2025, respectively.
JINHUI HI-TECH
| Established date | February 16, 2006 |
| Company location | Guangdong, China |
| Registered capital | 120 million RMB |
| Company website | http://www.jinhuigk.com |
JINHUI HI-TECH’s business scope includes the production and sales of lithium-ion battery separators, plasma permeable microporous films, functional polymer diaphragms, insulating films, semi-permeable membranes for various purposes, and other environmentally friendly organic membranes. JINHUI HI-TECH is the first manufacturer in China to produce Li-ion battery separators using wet process.
The lithium-ion battery separator developed and produced by the company is famous in the global market for its advantages of stable quality and high cost performance.
HORIZON
| Established date | November 10, 2017 |
| Company location | Jiangsu, China |
| Registered capital | 1.75 billion RMB |
| Company website | https://www.horizon-tech.cn/ |
HORIZON is a manufacturer of high-end lithium battery separators in the world. The company’s annual output of lithium-ion battery separators is 1 billion square meters, which are used in new energy vehicle power batteries, 3C consumer batteries, energy storage batteries and other fields.
On July 28, 2022, the production line No. 1 of the first phase of Shanxi HORIZON was successfully completed. The HORIZON Shanxi project has a total investment of about 5 billion RMB to build 16 lithium-ion battery separator production lines, which will officially start in July 2021.
HUIQIANG NEW ENERGY
| Established date | January 28, 2011 |
| Company location | Henan, China |
| Registered capital | 69 million RMB |
| Company website | http://www.hqnem.com/ |
HUIQIANG NEW ENERGY’s main business is lithium-ion battery separator, three-layer co-extruded PP/PP/PP high-strength separator of the same material, three-layer co-extruded PP/PE/PP special-shaped material high-safety separator, etc.
HUIQIANG NEW ENERGY has three manufacturing bases in Zhumadian, Henan, Wuhan, Hubei, and Xiangyang, and will rank third in China’s dry-process diaphragm market share in 2021. HUIQIANG NEW ENERGY’s main customers include BYD, Great Power, etc.
HUIQIANG NEW ENERGY lithium battery smart separator project phase II expansion project, newly added land of 62 mu, launched 5 world-leading power lithium battery smart separator production lines.
HongTu Separator
| Established date | March 18, 2005 |
| Company location | Jilin, China |
| Registered capital | 49.3769 million RMB |
| Company website | http://www.htldgm.cn |
HongTu Separator is a high-tech enterprise integrating R&D, production and sales of zinc-manganese battery separators and lithium battery separators. The company has two separator production bases in Liaoyuan and Huzhou and Hongtu Research Institute.
The company’s products cover lithium battery PE separators of various thickness specifications, alumina coated separators, boehmite coated separators, PVDF coated separators, and various mixed-coated separators. The company has a number of patents, and its products are sold to many high-end lithium battery companies around the world.
