Profit is under pressure, unwilling to "work": car companies seek "power battery freedom", battery companies accelerate lithium grabbing

21st Century Business Herald reporter Du Qiaomei Beijing report

"With the release of the listed company interim report, the performance of lithium ore companies and battery companies is generally good, especially the performance of lithium mine companies is super strong. The profit margin is about 8%, and the profit margin of the vehicle company is about 5%. "

On September 8th, Cui Dongshu, Secretary -General of the Federation of Federation, said in an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald that the profit level of the automotive industry is already low in the downstream manufacturing industry, and the high prosperity of the lithium mining industry is mainly due to the main benefit of the lithium mining industry. The rapid development and expected resource mismatch of the new energy vehicle industry.

Since the beginning of this year, the rapid growth of new energy vehicles has led to the rapid development of my country's power battery industry. According to data from the China Automobile Association, from January to August this year, my country's new energy vehicle production and sales reached 3.97 million and 3.86 million, respectively, an increase of 1.2 times and 1.1 times year-on-year, and the market share of new energy vehicles reached 22.9%.

But at the same time, the price of key raw materials, including lithium carbonate, has risen all the way, which also allows the industry to withstand huge challenges.

"The cost of power batteries has accounted for nearly 60%of the cost of electric vehicles, so isn't we working for Ningde Times now?" On July 20, Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, showed at the 2022 World Power Battery Conference. As a result, battery companies accelerate to integration, except for Tesla's new energy vehicle manufacturers are losing money.

In this regard, Zeng Yuqun, chairman of Ningde Times, said that the capital speculation of upstream raw materials brought short -term distress to the power battery industry chain.

As the scale of the power battery market continues to expand, the demand growth has brought imbalances for supply and demand. Although the operating income of power battery companies, including Ningde Times, has also increased with. However, in the first half of this year, due to the rise in raw materials, the profit of most battery companies declined.

You can also see one or two from the half -year financial report disclosed by the company. Since the beginning of this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles have continued to grow at a high speed, but most electric vehicle companies have expanded. In contrast, battery companies and upstream lithium mine companies have made a lot of money.

Among the 81 listed companies in the Wind Lithium battery sector, more than 86%of companies achieve revenue growth, and 75%of the company's net profit increased year -on -year. Among them, the gross profit margin of salt lake lithium companies can reach more than 90%; 60%of the 15 lithium salt companies have increased by more than 5 times year -on -year, of which the net profit of Tianqi lithium industry is 10.328 billion yuan, which is year -on -year, year -on -year, year -on -year Increased 11937.16%.

At the same time, the gross profit margin of the battery manufacturing link is below 15%, and even some companies are less than 10%. The semi -annual report released on August 23 in Ningde Times showed that the gross profit margin of the main products fell across the board, and the gross profit margin of the power battery system decreased by nearly 8 percentage points; Wanda's "electric vehicle battery" gross profit margin is only 8.76%.

"Since 2021, the upstream raw materials have shown to varying degrees of price increases, which has increased the pressure of corporate costs." Xinwangda pointed out in the financial report.

In response to the rise in raw materials, power battery companies also chose to transfer some price increase pressure to downstream car companies. In the first half of this year, of the 17 listed car companies, nearly 50 % of the enterprises suffered to varying degrees of losses, and more than 60 % of the vehicle companies declined their net profit.

This also means that with the further development of my country's new energy vehicle industry, the control of upstream resources is becoming a key factor in determining the success or failure of the vehicle company in the future.

Each vehicle enterprise penetrates to the middle and upstream

"In order to cope with the rise in raw materials, the OEM has entered the upstream and downstream of the battery industry chain. Yang said.

In fact, the continuous impact of the rise in raw material prices is changing the structure of the industry. Although most battery companies have maintained the stability of the volume of car companies through diluting their profit margins, more and more OEMs are to maintain in order to maintain maintenance The stability and security of the supply chain are increasing investment in the power battery industry chain.

"In the future, 'The entire vehicle is the king' is an inevitable trend. The vehicle enterprise must be the length of the industrial chain. In the future, companies that are new energy vehicles are profitable. Especially the battery industry must be controlled. My hand. "Cui Dongshu told reporters.

"Ensuring the safety and stability of the battery supply chain is an important foundation for the car industry to realize the healthy development of the automotive industry." Zeng Qinghong revealed that GAC Group is already creating a battery. It is still considering buying a lithium ore and a full -industry chain layout to provide customers with cheap prices. New energy vehicles.

On August 25, GAC Group announced that it would invest 10.9 billion yuan to set up an independent battery company -Green Engine Battery Company to carry out the construction of independent battery industrialization. According to the plan, the autonomous battery plant will start construction at the end of this year. By 2025, the 26.8GWH mass production line will be completed. In the early stage, it mainly supports the enterprises in the EME GAC Group. It will actively expand the external market and carry out market -oriented operations.

According to reports, the first product of the autonomous battery company adopts the lithium iron phosphate technology of GAC to improve the safety of the battery packages while reducing the number and cost of components through structural optimization.

At the same time, the Board of Directors of GAC Group also reviewed and approved the "Proposal on the Construction of Battery Production Bases in Jiwan Technical Research", agreed with the participating company Guangzhou Juwan Technical Research Co., Ltd. to build a battery production base project. The PACK system, the total investment of the project is 3.69 billion yuan. In addition to the establishment of a battery company to promote self -developed self -developed power batteries, GAC Ean also held a strategic cooperation agreement signing ceremony with Ganfeng Lithium Industry to cooperate from the upstream materials of new energy power batteries to continue to explore the development of lithium resource development, midstream lithium in the middle reaches Salt deep processing and waste battery comprehensive recycling and use of in -depth cooperation at all levels.

Not only GAC Group. On the evening of September 6, Ankai Bus issued an announcement that plans to jointly invest in a joint venture with Jianghuai Automobile and Fudi Battery to build a new energy power battery production plant and carry out new energy power battery production projects Essence

According to data, since the beginning of 2021, many main OEMs including BMW, Volkswagen Group, GM, Ford, Stellandis Group, Tesla, Renault, Toyota, and BYD have invested 21 items of battery raw materials, 16 of them are invested in the lithium industry.

Hua'an Securities stated that car companies to lay up the battery field to enhance the right to speak in the industrial chain, which is conducive to ensuring battery supply and cost reduction and efficiency. On the one hand, this move confirms the high prosperity of the electric vehicle and lithium battery industries. On the other hand, it may exacerbate industry competition. The head battery factory is expected to respond to global competition with its technical, funds, production capacity and customer advantages.

Behind car companies set up independent battery companies and laid out the upstream, a new game is starting.

With the increasingly fierce competition for new energy vehicles, while car companies, while car companies, they also pay more attention to the autonomous control capabilities of the automotive industry chain. After the factory began, it was integrated to "batteries" and layout of battery raw materials, and power battery companies were also layout upstream.

Power battery enterprise starts lithium grabbing war

At present, the development of global new energy vehicles has continued to rise in demand for power batteries. The industry expects that the penetration rate of global new energy vehicles in 2025 is expected to continue to climb to 20%, and the demand for power batteries will continue to be strong. It is expected that by 2025, global power batteries demand will exceed 1200GWh, plus small batteries and energy storage energy storage storage. The total shipment will exceed 1600GWh.

SNE Research predicts that by 2023, the gap in global power batteries will be about 18%. By 2025, the gap will expand to about 40%.

The rapid growth of new energy vehicles has driven the power battery company to a larger scale, and the current supply chain may not meet its demand for production capacity. As an important raw material for lithium battery production, the price of lithium carbonate has skyrocketed from about 50,000 yuan per ton last year to 500,000 yuan per ton in the first quarter of this year.

After the "seasonal fall" in the second quarter, the price of lithium carbonate began a new round of rise since late August.

On September 4, Ping An Securities pointed out in the research report that the upstream lithium resources supply is tightly superimposed with a high increase in downstream, and the price of lithium carbonate once again is close to nearly 500,000 yuan/ton.

"Considering the relationship between supply and demand, it is expected that the product will still be in short supply in the next 18 months. Although the supply and demand tension will be improved as one after another." On the afternoon of August 31, Li Guo, the vice president of Tianqi Lithium, was in its place. Explanation of the performance description. By the end of 2024, the increase in the supply side is not as optimistic as external predictions.

This also forced power battery companies to increase the layout of upstream resources, closer to the upstream realization of upstream, to ensure their future production, and to ensure the safety and cost control of supply chain as much as possible.

Since last year, the Ningde Times has launched the layout of upstream resources and related industrial chains in Jiangxi. Different entities have been established by holding or shares. Discovery and mining rights. In April this year, Ningde Times obtained the exploration right of Jiangxi Yichun Lithium Mine, which is equivalent to more than 6.6 million tons of lithium carbonate. Lithium carbonate projects have annual planning capacity of 50,000 tons and 100,000 tons, respectively.

Guoxuan Hi -Tech also reached a cooperation with the Yichun City Government, which will invest in the construction of lithium carbonate projects in Yifeng and Fengxin. Ganzi and Meishan Industry Investment Cooperation cooperate to invest in the construction of lithium resources deep processing projects in Ganzi Prefecture, and carry out the business of lithium mine resource exploration and development, mineral trade, and deep processing in Ganzi Prefecture. A strategic cooperation is reached and the latter supply it to the battery -level lithium carbonate.

"Be sure to master resources. Both vehicle companies, battery companies, and countries should master lithium resources." On August 20, the Honeycomb Energy CEO Yang Hongxin said in an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald that the vehicle company should reduce costs. Don't let resources be a bottleneck.

In June of this year, the Honeycomb Energy and Ganfeng Lithium Industry signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement. The two parties will conduct in -depth cooperation in various aspects such as lithium resources, lithium salt supply and marketing, battery recycling, and industrial park construction.

It was just that in the past 20 days, there were as many as three cooperation between hive energy in related fields. The content of the cooperation involved the acquisition and mining of upstream lithium ore resources, the manufacturing of midstream lithium batteries, and the closed -loop industry chain recovered by downstream lithium batteries."my country's lithium resource reserves are extremely rich, but many of them have not been proven or many cannot be mining. In addition to increasing the detection, mining and approval of lithium resources, they must be increased. Support these companies to actively enter overseas for global layout." In response to the shortage of lithium carbonate supply, Yang Hongxin told reporters, "But this requires a cycle, whether it is China's resource volume or overseas resource volume, it really takes a cycle. In the past two years, we have to bear loneliness to spend this difficult period. "

Faced with the current price of raw materials for power batteries, Yang Hongxin believes that the most fundamental solution is technological innovation.

"Either electric vehicles in the future, energy storage, and cost solutions still depend on technological innovation. We must find ways to reduce the use of more expensive raw materials." Yang Hongxin said.

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