After soaring, the lithium battery industry entered a "cooling period". On the one hand, the price of lithium battery materials in the upper and middle reaches was low, and many leading listed companies suffered losses. On the other hand, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology plans to guide lithium battery enterprises to reduce capacity expansion.
Innovation solves difficult problems, and difficulties force transformation. According to a survey by a reporter from China Securities Journal, many lithium battery companies are actively seeking innovation and change in the face of numerous challenges in the development of the industry. Under the trend of rational production reduction, they are busy innovating, changing the track, and seeking to go out to sea. Multiple paths are promoted at the same time to find new growth points.
● Our reporter Zhang Yun
Focused solid state battery
Recently, the 2024 Shenzhen International Lithium Battery Technology Exhibition was held in Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center, with nearly 200 exhibitors. This industry leading exhibition gathers the world's leading lithium battery enterprises and innovative technology teams to display the latest lithium battery technology, materials and equipment, including the whole chain of upstream battery materials, midstream battery manufacturing and downstream battery applications, becoming a window for the market to observe the development status of the industry.
"Solid state battery" is the focus of attention. At the booth of Beijing Weilan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., various battery cell products marked with the words "automotive power solid state battery" and "energy storage solid state battery" were neatly displayed, attracting many visitors to stop to visit and negotiate.
It is reported that Weilan New Energy is an incubated enterprise of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Founded in 2016, it is mainly engaged in solid-state lithium-ion batteries. It is a national specialized and new "little giant" enterprise and a unicorn enterprise, achieving its first breakthrough in several solid-state lithium battery technology fields. The 150kwh battery pack carried by Weilai ET7 is a semi-solid battery jointly developed by Weilai and Weilan New Energy, with an actual endurance of 1044km.
The potential applications of solid state batteries are not limited to electric vehicles. At present, solid state battery is also considered as the key technology to support the development of low altitude economy. Shao Qiming, the sales director of Weilan New Energy, said that the company's experts had more than 40 years of experience in solid state battery industry research. They came to the exhibition, on the one hand, to show the company's latest progress in solid state battery research and development, on the other hand, they also wanted to seek partners to jointly make this innovative track bigger and stronger.
"Solid state battery" is also a recent hot spot in the capital market. Recently, many listed companies actively responded to the business layout of semi-solid and solid-state batteries. Sanxiang New Material 、 Dangsheng Technology 、 Shanghai Xiba Other related concept stocks rose significantly. Among them, Sanxiang New Material has increased by more than 40% since this year. On May 17, Guoxuan High tech Announcing the launch of all solid state battery "Goldstone Battery", the company's share price rose by the limit on the same day.
At the exhibition site, various applications and innovations of lithium batteries were eye-catching. At the booth of Guangzhou Jisheng Energy Group Co., Ltd., lithium battery energy storage cabinets are huge and shiny. The on-site person in charge of the company pointed to one of the energy storage cabinets, which is 2 meters high and 1.4 meters wide, and said that this is a new 232KWh liquid cooled energy storage cabinet launched this year, with a weight of about 2.5 tons. A notable highlight is the third-generation immersion liquid cooling system, in which the lithium battery is immersed in insulating coolant, and the fire safety has been greatly improved.
The energy storage industry is showing a long-term positive trend. From the first quarterly reports of listed companies, the industry is gradually emerging from the fierce competition of inventory removal and price, and looking for long-term survival strategies. According to the preliminary survey data released by the Institute of Lithium Battery, the energy storage battery shipments in the first quarter of this year were 40GWh, up 14% year on year.
Household energy storage is a new track created by lithium battery enterprises. Pengcheng Energy System (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. moved three household energy storage devices the size of bedside table to the exhibition site, and many visitors came to inquire about the price. Yan Ziqi, the sales manager, said that at present, the popularity of household energy storage in China is not high, and the price is relatively expensive. At this stage, the company's products are mainly exported to some countries that are relatively short of electricity or have high electricity prices.
BOC Securities The research report shows that with the increase in the proportion of household photovoltaic power generation, the problem of consumption is becoming increasingly prominent, and the installation of household energy storage may become one of the effective solutions. In the long run, domestic energy storage has great potential for development.
Faced with multiple challenges
Since the beginning of this year, the lithium battery industry has changed from its previous state of rapid progress, and its development has gradually become more rational. The pressure is gradually emerging, which is first reflected in the sharp price reduction of many products in the industrial chain.
At the exhibition site, some energy storage exhibitors said that the price of some products had dropped by more than 20%. Many exhibitors, when consulting customers, also eagerly said: "The price is negotiable."
Data shows that in 2023, the price of lithium iron phosphate, the upstream material of lithium battery, will drop by more than 70% at the end of the year compared with the beginning of the year. The price of some battery cell products, positive and negative electrode materials and electrolyte has also decreased by more than 50% annually.
Under the trend of product price reduction, even leading enterprises are hard to be isolated, and the performance of lithium battery material enterprises has declined significantly. For example, it is known by the market as the "two giants of lithium industry" Tianqi Lithium and Ganfeng Lithium Net losses for two consecutive quarters. In the first quarter of 2024, Tianqi Lithium's net loss attributable to the parent company was 3.897 billion yuan, and Ganfeng Lithium's net loss attributable to the parent company was about 439 million yuan.
Faced with the pressure of industry development, some listed companies have postponed or terminated lithium battery projects and become more cautious about expanding production. For example, Huasoft Technology Terminate two electrolyte additive projects with a total investment of 450 million yuan; Anda Technology It was announced that 60% of the equity of Inner Mongolia Anda would be transferred to Ganfeng Lithium Industry. The original plan was to build a 20000 ton lithium iron phosphate cathode material project on the platform of Inner Mongolia Anda. Electrolyte tap Neozeus The project extension announcement was issued to extend the expected availability date of the second phase of Jingmen Xinzhoubang lithium battery material project with an annual output of 283000 tons of lithium battery electrolyte capacity from December 31, 2024 to December 31, 2026.
Industry insiders believe that in the past few years, capital has been chasing hot spots and entering the lithium battery industry in large numbers, which has rapidly expanded the capacity. However, with the slowdown of market demand, many cross-border layouts without technical and cost advantages are facing the fate of being eliminated. In the long run, the return to rationality of the lithium battery industry will help avoid the risk of vicious competition at low prices and blindly following the trend of cross-border trade, and promote the sustainable and healthy development of the industry.
Seeking the way to break the situation
In the face of numerous challenges in the development of the industry, the reporter learned from the interview and research that improving the level of technological innovation and product iteration, reducing costs, promoting the capacity to return to rationality, and going to sea have become the main directions for many lithium battery enterprises to strive to break the situation.
"We mainly improve our competitiveness by reducing costs, and more importantly, reduce design costs." An exhibitor on the site replied when asked how to cope. It is understood that under the influence of the price reduction trend of lithium battery products, many enterprises have taken cost reduction as an important way to break the situation and improve profit margins by further reducing costs.
Wang Xiaoqiang, vice president of China Innovation Airlines, also believes that the industry will be a stage of capacity clearing in 2024, with prices remaining relatively low and higher requirements for enterprises' cost control ability.
Many insiders believe that it is the only way for the healthy and sustainable development of the industry to promote the capacity to return to calm and rational, and gradually clear the low-end and homogeneous capacity.
Huasheng Lithium Battery Shen Jinliang, chairman of the board of directors, believes that in terms of electrolyte additives, the high cost homogenization capacity will be cleared. Jiayuan Technology Liao Pingyuan, the chairman of the board of directors, believes that in the process of shuffling the lithium battery copper foil industry, some smaller or invalid capacity will be eliminated.
Technological innovation is considered to be the main direction for lithium battery enterprises to seek a solution. Many exhibitors at the exhibition said frankly that new technologies and products are often easier to attract the attention of consumers. Public information shows that in recent years, many listed companies have also put new technology and new product research and development in an important position, continued to invest large amounts of research and development costs, and new patent applications have emerged frequently. Since this year, Ningde era 、 Xinwangda And many other enterprises released their new fast charging battery products.
In addition to deep exploration of lithium battery technology innovation, many companies have entered into new technology line batteries, such as sodium batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, etc. On May 13, Pulit The announcement said that its holding subsidiary, Haisida, signed a framework contract with Shanghai Pingye for the purchase and sale of sodium battery products with a total volume of no less than 1.5GWh. It is reported that compared with lithium batteries, sodium batteries have advantages in cost and raw material reserves, while hydrogen fuel cells can achieve lighter weight.
In addition, more and more listed companies in the lithium battery industry chain announced to build factories overseas, or said they would continue to explore overseas markets. According to the data released by China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, in April, China's power and other battery exports totaled 12.7GWh, up 3.4% month on month and 28.5% year on year.
The research report of True Lithium shows that Hungary and Turkey have become the main destinations for Chinese power battery enterprises to go to sea. In addition, in 2024, the capacity planning of China's power batteries in the United States will exceed 90GWh, in Japan will exceed 20GWh, in Southeast Asian countries will exceed 10GWh, and in Germany and Spain will exceed 50GWh.
At the exhibition site, some exhibitors even said that overseas customers have become the largest customers of their products. Africa and Europe have become the destinations mentioned by exhibitors. "In addition to product shipping, we will also consider technology shipping and supply chain shipping in the future, which still contains huge space," said Yan Ziqi.
Although the lithium battery industry faces challenges and fluctuations in the short term, the long-term trend remains unchanged. Guolian Securities The research report believes that the leading battery enterprises have continuously promoted the capacity construction overseas in the past two years, and the overseas layout of leading enterprises in upstream materials and auxiliary materials has been promoted smoothly. Through the expansion of production in Europe, the Americas, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and other regions, material enterprises and surrounding battery plants are expected to form a complete industrial chain supporting, and the competitiveness of the lithium battery industry chain in cost control, supply assurance and other aspects may be further improved.
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Editor in charge: Jiang Yuhan
