Magnesium sector eyes growing opportunities in EVs

The magnesium industry is increasingly looking at the electric vehicle (EV) industry as a source of growing demand for its products, with evolving technologies opening up additional applications for the metal, delegates heard today at the International Magnesium Association (IMA) conference in Barcelona.

Several presenters pointed to new markets opening up for magnesium metal usage in lightweight die casting for EVs, battery housing and, further down the line, in the batteries themselves.

A typical battery pack, using a magnesium-aluminium alloy housing, is expected to need about 60kg of magnesium, according to consultancy CM Group. Not every vehicle will use a magnesium or magnesium alloy housing for the battery, but with EV demand expected to grow to about 26mn sales by 2030, according to Argus consulting figures, there is significant room for magnesium demand to grow from the sector.

Sunlight Metal Consulting (Beijing) Co., Ltd general manager Chunming Dong pointed out that two-wheel EVs may present an even bigger opportunity for magnesium use, because they are smaller and lend themselves to larger single-part die casting.

"We have quite a strong outlook for uptake of magnesium in China's auto sector, not necessarily outside China," CM Group founder and director Alan Clark told delegates. "We take that view because we can see China's auto sector is becoming more comfortable in taking advantage of that enormous resource and you can see the advantage of removing weight from the vehicle and we think they will do exactly that."

CM Group predicts a 6.7pc compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in demand from automotive die casting between now and 2027, largely driven by Chinese companies looking to reduce vehicle weight. Between 2027-32, it predicts an 11pc CAGR.

Potential for future use in batteries

The potential for magnesium to be used in place of lithium in batteries was also highlighted at the IMA conference, with an award handed out to a new technological breakthrough to do with magnesium-ion technology.

The award for Future Magnesium Technologies at the conference was presented to Professor Guangsheng Huang for a project on magnesium-ion battery technology conducted between Chongqing University and Guangdong Guoyan Tech Co., Ltd.

"I'm quite optimistic in terms of the magnesium-ion technology for batteries," University of Auckland senior technologist Shanghai Wei told delegates. "I believe it will be 10-15 years until you will see very good results, with them being charged 400-500 cycles. I don't think these battery systems will be used for vehicles, but think about other applications like solar storage, home storage, things like that."

Wei pointed to a high volumetric energy density, as well as relative abundance in magnesium and limited potential for explosions as advantages of magnesium-ion batteries, though acknowledged a long time frame for commercial viability.

"There is definitely commercial interest in this technology," he told Argus.

By Thomas Kavanagh