Selling a car is worse than selling batteries. Selling batteries is comparable to lithium ore?

"China Economic Weekly" reporter Lu Jiangtao | Beijing report

At the "2022 World New Energy Vehicle Conference" held recently, Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC Group, publicly stated that in the past year, the price of lithium carbonate has skyrocketed 10 times, and the middle and lower reaches of the equivalent chain of the vehicle factory are all doing. The upstream ore main workers are under tremendous cost pressure.

At the "2022 World Power Battery Conference" more than a month ago, Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, said: "The cost of power batteries has accounted for 40 %, 50 %, and 60 % of our cars, and it is increasing. Isn't it to work for Ningde Times? "This also attracted the relevant person in charge of Ningde Times to" shout "in the subsequent speech, thinking that he was just struggling with a slightly profitable edge, and pointed his finger at the raw materials such as lithium ore and other batteries. price.

Who is the car company, power battery manufacturer and upstream lithium ore production enterprises who make money? Who is making a fortune again? With the disclosure of the A -share listed company in the semi -annual report of 2022, the operating data of the entire new energy vehicle industry chain in the first half of this year was also fully displayed in front of investors.

"New Energy" into high -frequency keywords

In the first half of this year, the automotive industry was affected by factors such as challenges in supply chain and raw materials price increases. Many companies operated pressure. According to data from the China Automobile Industry Association, in the first half of 2022, my country's automobile manufacturing industry completed its operating income of 4089.28 billion yuan, a year -on -year decrease of 4.2 %; the profit was 212.9 billion yuan, a year -on -year decrease of 25.5 %.

In this context, many listed car companies' "middle school entrance examination" transcripts have revealed the chills.

Taking the "listed car company one brother" SAIC Group (600104.SH), which has always been most profitable, as an example, its operating income was 315.993 billion yuan in the first half of this year, a year -on -year decrease of 13.69%; the net profit was 6.91 billion yuan, a year -on -year decrease of 48.1%. Revenue and net profit have doubled. In this regard, SAIC Group explained in the financial report that the epidemic rebound caused a serious impact on the automotive industry chain supply chain, resulting in a decrease in the company's sales revenue. At the same time, the price of tight supply and power batteries such as tight supply and power batteries has risen significantly on product gross profit margin.

Beijing Automobile (01958.HK), which was listed in Hong Kong stocks, also had revenue and net profit decline. In the first half of this year, Beijing Automobile achieved revenue of 83.679 billion yuan, a year -on -year decrease of 7.41%; %. Moreover, the income of Beijing Automobile is basically from Beijing Benz. From the financial report, if Beijing Benz is eliminated, the independent brand of Beijing Automobile is in a state of losing money.

In addition, Dongfeng Group Co., Ltd. (00489.HK) and JAC (600418.SH) are also double -decreased revenue and net profit, while Cyris (601127.SH), BAIC Lan Valley (600733.SH), and Horse Motors (000572 Although revenue has increased year -on -year, the loss is further expanding.

Although the industry is generally facing great pressure, some car companies have achieved adversity growth. The biggest winner is to announce the stop production of fuel vehicles from March this year, BYD (002594.SZ), which focuses on the new energy vehicle market. Its operating income in the first half of this year was 150.607 billion yuan, an increase of 65.71%year -on -year; net profit was 35.95 35.95 100 million yuan, an increase of 206.35%year -on -year, exceeding 2021.

The car companies that also realize the double -profit doubles include GAC Group (601238.SH). Its operating income in the first half of the year was 48.689 billion yuan, an increase of 40.83%year -on -year; net profit was 5.751 billion yuan, an increase of 32.61%year -on -year. GAC Group owns independent brand GAC Trumpchi, GAC Ean, joint venture brand GAC Honda, GAC Toyota, GAC Mitsubishi, etc. In the semi -annual report, China GAC ​​Group focused on the total sales volume of its pure electric new energy electric vehicle brand Ean in the first half of 2022, a total of about 10,34%year -on -year, and successfully entered the new energy vehicle company camp.

It is worth noting that whether it is a car company that is growing against the trend, or the car company that temporarily falls into trouble, new energy vehicles are mentioned in the semi -annual report. Although the market penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the first half of this year has just exceeded 20%, many car companies have begun to tilt resources to new energy models with higher value of bicycles.

"Ning Wang" kills all car companies

According to the data released by the China Automobile Association, the cumulative production and sales of domestic automobiles in the first half of this year completed 12.117 million and 12.057 million, respectively, a year -on -year decrease of 3.7%and 6.6%, while the production and sales of new energy vehicles in the first half of this year were 2.661 million vehicles and 260, respectively. Thousands of vehicles, a year -on -year increase of 1.2 times, and a market share of 21.6%.

Although the sales of new energy vehicles in the first half of the year have achieved steady and high growth, there are few car companies that really rely on sales of new energy vehicles to achieve profit growth, and they are facing the dilemma of "increasing income and increasing profit". Zeng Qinghong had ridiculed car companies to work for Ningde Times. In addition to Zeng Qinghong, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holdings, and Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, also called for the healthy and sustainable development of the entire industrial chain. Reasonable interval.

As the leader of the power battery, what is the performance of the Ningde Times (300750.SZ)? The semi -annual report shows that in the first half of this year, the operating income of Ningde Times was 112.971 billion yuan, an increase of 156.32%year -on -year; the net profit of the mother was 8.168 billion yuan, an increase of 82.17%year -on -year. It can be seen that if compared with the half -year financial report data in Ningde Times, car companies are indeed losing money to make money. Even the SAIC Group, with the highest net profit, has a profit of 1.258 billion yuan less than the Ningde era in the first half of this year, while SAIC's revenue is almost three times the Ningde era.

The complaints about downstream car companies also felt "grievances" in Ningde era. At the "2022 World Power Battery Conference" held at the end of July, Zeng Yuqun, chairman of Ningde Times, explained: "The capital speculation of upstream raw materials has brought short -term distress to the power battery industry chain. The upstream materials of the battery have skyrocketed. "Since then, Wu Kai, chief scientist in Ningde Times, also said in his speech:" We usually face customer complaints. Take it away? Although our company has not lost money this year, it is basically struggling on the edge of a little profitable. It is very painful. Wherever the profit goes, everyone can imagine. "

Factors such as upstream raw materials increase price and supply and demand mismatch have devoured the profits of midstream battery companies, which can be seen from the first quarter report of the Ningde Times in 2022. In the first quarter of this year, the operating cost of Ningde Times increased by 198.66%year -on -year, exceeding 44 percentage points of operating income, and a gross profit margin of only 14.48%, a new low in two years, and the decline in gross profit margin was mainly due to the pressure of raw materials.

However, in the second quarter, Ningde's net profit increased sharply to 6.675 billion yuan, an increase of 163.93%year -on -year, and rose from a decline in one fell swoop.

Why does net profit in the second quarter return to increase? At the performance briefing of Ningde Times in the first half of the year, after the second quarter, the company's profitability was better repaired after negotiation with customers.

It can be seen that the Ningde Times has successfully transferred the influence of raw materials to downstream car companies through product price increases.

In addition to the Ningde era, the other four power battery production companies listed on A shares have also increased significantly in the first half of this year. However, in terms of net profit, the growth of these four companies is not as good as the Ningde era.

"Lithium King" is the real "local tyrant"

In the first half of this year, "赚" earned more than 8 billion yuan in Ningde era, and its global market share has reached 34%. This means that every three electric vehicles in the world have a matching battery of the Ningde era.

But if the gross profit margin alone, the Ningde era is not the most "embarrassing". In the first half of this year, the overall gross profit margin of the Ningde era was 18.68%, of which the gross profit margin of the main business power battery system was 15.04%, a year -on -year decrease of nearly 8%; The system gross profit margin fell by more than 30%to only 6.43%.

The lithium ore producers of the Ningde Times Chairman Zeng Yuqun and the chief scientist of Ningde Times Wu Kai did earn more than the Ningde Times.

The semi -annual report shows that the lithium mine giant Tianqi Lithium (002466.SZ) achieved operating income of 14.296 billion yuan in the first half of this year, an increase of 508.05%year -on -year; the net profit attributable to the mother was 10.328 billion yuan, an increase of 11937.16%year -on -year. Although the revenue of Tianqi Lithium is less than 13%of the Ningde era, the net profit killed the Ningde era.

Another lithium mine giant Ganfeng Lithium (002460.SZ) achieved operating income of 14.444 billion yuan in the first half of 2022, an increase of 255.38%year -on -year; net profit attributable to mothers was 7.254 billion yuan, a year -on -year increase of 412.02%.

In addition, A -share listed companies involving lithium ore include Rongjie (002192.SZ), Tianhua Chaojing (300390.SZ), and Tibet Mining (000762.SZ) in the first half of this year. It also reached 4444%, 1023%, and 1018%, respectively, and made a lot of money.

Lithium ore production enterprises have made a lot of money in the first half of this year, thanks to the historical high of lithium carbonate nearly 500,000 yuan/ton.

However, from the past experience, the price of lithium ore has obvious periodicity. Data show that the previous round of lithium carbonate can be traced back to 2017. At that time, affected by the explosive growth of the new energy vehicle market, the price of lithium carbonate soared to about 170,000 yuan/ton. However, in 2018, the production capacity of a large number of new lithium carbonate projects in the early stage began to be released. In addition, foreign mining giants have also begun to expand production capacity. 10,000 yuan/ton fell to 74,200 yuan/ton at the end of the year, with an annual decline of 53.3%.

In 2019, the price of lithium carbonate continued to fall, a minimum of about 40,000 yuan/ton, and the production capacity cycle did not bottom out until the fourth quarter of 2020. Under the issue of cycle and its own operations, Rongjie, Salt Lake, Jiangte Electric, and Tibet Mining have been ST, and once faced the delisting crisis. 100 million yuan, on the verge of delisting.

Responsible editor | Guo Yiyao

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