Keyword search: battery plant ,  lithium battery factory ,  power bank works ,  lifepo4 battery mill ,  Pallet Trucks LiFePO4 Battery,  LiFePO4 Pallet Trucks Battery,  Lithium Pallet Trucks Battery, 

The share price reached a new high, and the market value exceeded 200 billion yuan. Ningde Times New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ningde Times") stands out in the domestic power battery industry. Recently, under the pursuit of many car enterprises, Ningde Times is speeding up its nationwide "horse racing enclosure".

According to the data, Ningde Times occupies 17% of the global market and 29% of the domestic market, ranking first in the world. Previously, Ningde Times invested 240 million euros in Germany to build a production base, marking its entry into the European market previously occupied by Japanese and Korean enterprises. Coincidentally, on July 17, LG Chem of South Korea launched a $2 billion battery project in Nanjing. With the reduction of subsidies, Japanese and Korean enterprises have seen market opportunities and made a "comeback" in China.

In addition to dealing with the approaching overseas competitors, Ningde Times also needs to solve its own profit growth problem. The position of this industry leader, which has only been established for seven years, is not as stable as Mount Tai. In the future trillion yuan power battery market, more players are pouring into the market. The pattern of the industry is becoming clearer and clearer. The smoke of gunpowder is spreading from home to abroad, and the competition is becoming white hot.

As the leader of the industry, Ningde Times can not rest easy in the fierce competition in the industry. Recently, it has taken frequent actions. In addition to the establishment of a cooperative company with GAC Group with a total investment of 1 billion yuan this time, Ningde Times recently received an order of 4 billion euros from BMW Group. It is worth mentioning that BMW in this cooperation will purchase cobalt and other raw materials for Ningde Times.

In addition to competing for downstream manufacturers, grasping the upstream of the industrial chain has gradually become a competitive trend in the field of power batteries. Moke, the chief analyst of Zhenli Research, believes that "power battery enterprises must extend upstream and downstream to avoid resources being" stuck "if they want to become bigger and stronger and become the leading enterprises in the industry."

Ningde Times mentioned in the prospectus released earlier that the rise of cobalt, lithium and other raw materials had a substantial impact on battery enterprises. It is understood that in 2017, the gross profit rate of Ningde Times power battery system was 35.25%, a significant decrease of 9.59% year on year.

There are multiple reasons for the decline of gross profit margin in Ningde Times, including the double pressures of rising raw material prices and falling battery prices. From the perspective of material cost, from 2015 to 2017, Ningde Times had the highest proportion in the total procurement of cathode materials, which were 556 million yuan, 1.764 billion yuan and 3.382 billion yuan respectively.

Industry insiders said that among the four main materials of ternary lithium batteries, the raw materials needed for cathode materials are nickel, cobalt, etc., and the production and reserves of cobalt are small and the price is high.

According to public data, more than 90% of domestic cobalt was imported in 2017, of which 84% was imported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The highly concentrated production capacity led to the monopoly of global cobalt resources by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In terms of price, the domestic cobalt price has risen by more than 230% since the end of 2015.

According to the analysis of BOCI Securities, from 2018 to 2020, the supply of cobalt ore is expected to be 119900 tons, 134700 tons and 146200 tons respectively, and the demand of terminal entities in the same period is forecast to be 124300 tons, 134500 tons and 151400 tons respectively. It can be seen from the data that the supply and demand pattern of cobalt is tight. The insiders said: "The price of cobalt is still at a high level on the whole, and it will not drop if the power battery system is not changed."

For Ningde Times, it was previously proposed that the production capacity should reach 54GWh by 2020, and there should be enough raw materials behind the high production capacity. Our reporter asked the head of the market department of Ningde Times about the supply of raw materials, but the other side did not disclose it.

It is worth noting that while cobalt and other raw materials are rising, the price of power battery is declining, which will bring greater pressure to the cost reduction of Ningde Times. Data shows that from 2015 to 2017, the average sales price of power battery system in Ningde Times was 2.28 yuan/Wh, 2.06 yuan/Wh and 1.41 yuan/Wh respectively.

The insiders said that the price war in the industry has been continuing, and the price decline is related to the fierce competition in the industry and the decline of subsidy policies. The data shows that the price of power battery at the end of 2017 decreased by 20%~25% compared with the beginning of 2017. In the first quarter of 2018, the price of ternary power battery pack dropped to 1.3~1.4 yuan/Wh.

In the market price war, the dominant raw material price and supply become more important. The above insiders of Ningde Times said that the raw materials of power batteries are sourced from external procurement, and the layout of the upstream is carried out by establishing a joint venture. On July 5, Tianhua Chaojing announced that it planned to establish a joint venture with Ningde Times, focusing on the R&D of cathode materials. Previously, Ningde Times also distributed lithium resources by holding the North American lithium industry.

Japanese and Korean battery "catfish" competition

When Ningde Times encountered internal problems such as the decline of gross profit rate and great pressure to reduce costs, its overseas rivals were also quietly approaching.

On July 10, Tesla signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Shanghai Municipal Government, marking the official settlement of Tesla's super factory in Shanghai. According to the analysis of insiders, Tesla's entry into the Chinese market will trigger the "catfish effect", which will bring a sense of crisis to domestic independent brands. Two days after the news, Panasonic, as the exclusive battery supplier of Tesla, expressed its willingness to cooperate with Tesla in building factories in China.

The arrival of Tesla and the positive attitude of Panasonic have affected the nerve of the independent brand of power battery. Some insiders said frankly that for Ningde Times, the strongest competitor is Panasonic. The data shows that among the global power battery shipments in 2017, Ningde Times ranked first with the annual shipment of 12GWh, followed by Panasonic with the shipment of 10GWh.

Compared with domestic independent brands, Japanese and Korean enterprises have advantages in the price and technology of power battery manufacturing. Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the CAS Member and executive vice chairman of the China Electric Vehicle Hundred Talents Association, believes that at present, compared with the technology reserves of Chinese, Japanese and South Korean enterprises, Korean enterprises are slightly ahead in terms of ternary lithium batteries, while Japanese enterprises are better in the next generation of solid lithium batteries. However, there is not much difference between China and the first two, and they are expected to catch up in 10 years.

Ningde era can be developed later and come first, which is inseparable from our market and policy opportunities. Luo Shen, a securities analyst, believes that China currently accounts for 46% of the global market share and is the largest market in the world, with rapid growth.

In the early days of Ningde, the government's subsidy policy gave great help. Merco analyzed that there was a "glass door" that restricted the development of Japanese and Korean enterprises in the domestic market at that time, mitigating the impact of foreign brands. Therefore, in the past three years, the sales of power battery systems in Ningde era were 2.19GWh, 6.80GWh and 11.84GWh, respectively, surpassing Japanese and Korean enterprises to the top.

Merco said: "Enterprises with rapid development like Ningde Times have the opportunity to compete with Japanese and Korean enterprises after the closure of new energy subsidies in 2020, but most domestic battery enterprises are still relatively backward in technology. Without policy restrictions and protection, they will be greatly impacted in the future."

Japanese and Korean enterprises have long been eyeing the domestic market. In 2015, Panasonic, Samsung SDI and LG Chem respectively set up power battery factories in Dalian, Xi'an and Nanjing. Despite their advantages in price and technology, their products could not be listed in the white list of new energy power batteries, so they could not obtain government subsidies. Their final sales were poor and their development was not smooth.

During the Sino US trade war, it has become inappropriate to continue to exclude foreign brands. In April this year, the China Automobile Industry Association said that the newly established white list of power battery industry was not linked to subsidies. With the gradual loosening of the protection policy, the weak innovation ability of independent brands, and the serious overcapacity in the industry, foreign-funded enterprises also have a tendency to make a comeback.

The data shows that by the end of 2017, the total capacity of domestic power batteries was 135GWh, and the total installed power of power batteries was about 36.4GWh, which means that the capacity utilization rate of power batteries was only about 40%. Even in the Ningde era, the capacity utilization rate of lithium ion batteries in 2017 was only 75.54%, down 16.25% compared with the same period.

Some insiders believe that nearly 60% of the industry's overcapacity will impose a heavy burden on social resources. It is not a bad thing to introduce foreign-funded enterprises. As a "catfish", foreign-funded enterprises can promote the development of the domestic industry, eliminate backward production capacity, and bring a sense of crisis to Ningde Times, BYD and other large enterprises.

New technology eliminates old production capacity

In his speech in March 2018, Wu Mengtao, the general manager of Tianjin Bamo Co., Ltd., mentioned that the obvious contradiction of the domestic power battery market is the continuous expansion of capacity, the serious shortage of high-end product capacity, the tight market supply, and the structural overcapacity.

In the power battery industry, there was a "Great Leap Forward" era of capacity expansion. In November 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized the formation of the Specifications and Conditions for the Automotive Power Battery Industry (2017) (hereinafter referred to as the Draft for Comments). The capacity requirement of the manuscript for lithium ion battery enterprises has increased from 0.2GWh to 8GWh, a 40 fold increase, which has led to the industry's capacity expansion becoming normal.

According to the statistics of China Chemical and Physical Power Supply Industry Association, the power battery capacity in 2016 was 101.3GWh, while in 2017 it reached 230.1GWh, a year-on-year increase of more than 127.15%. The consequence of the industry's aggressive capacity expansion in a short period of time is that the risk of low-end overcapacity is rising. So far, no official document has been issued for the above-mentioned Draft.

At present, the ternary lithium battery is hot, and the major manufacturers speed up the layout of production lines, but it may bring unpredictable risks, just like a giant ship will be difficult to turn around. The research report of Tianfeng Securities shows that the power battery industry is still in the development stage, and the existing lithium battery technology does not rule out the possibility of disruptive technology.

The change of cutting-edge technology on the industry is obvious. The rise of Ningde era has something to do with betting on ternary lithium batteries. However, at present, the specific energy of ternary lithium batteries is difficult to exceed 400Wh/kg. In addition, it is also facing problems such as raw material pressure and short service life.

After the ternary lithium battery, Ouyang Minggao believes that the solid state lithium battery is most likely to become the next generation of power battery. At present, the United States, Europe, China, Japan and South Korea are all investing in research, among which Toyota focuses on solid state lithium ion batteries and plans to commercialize them in 2022.

Merco pointed out that power battery is, after all, a technology oriented industry. In the future, once revolutionary new technologies are applied (such as solid state lithium battery), the industry pattern that was not easy to form will be overturned. In terms of composition, solid state batteries are very different from lithium batteries, even without the need for electrolyte and diaphragm in the four core materials of lithium batteries, which means that the entire lithium battery industry chain may be overturned, existing old capacity will be completely eliminated, and the industry pattern will be reshuffled.

The relevant person in charge of Ningde Times believes that at present, all major manufacturers in the world are studying solid state batteries, and Ningde is no exception, and it is still in a leading position in China. However, solid state batteries are at least five years away from industrialization, and it is not realistic to have disruptive technologies in a short time.

Lithium Batteries ,Ensure Quality

Our lithium battery production line has a complete and scientific quality management system

Ensure the product quality of lithium batteries

Years of experience in producing lithium batteries

Focus on the production of lithium batteries

WE PROMISE TO MAKE EVERY LITHIUM BATTERY WELL

We have a comprehensive explanation of lithium batteries

QUALIFICATION CERTIFICATE

THE QUALITY OF COMPLIANCE PROVIDES GUARANTEE FOR CUSTOMERS

MULTIPLE QUALIFICATION CERTIFICATES TO ENSURE STABLE PRODUCT QUALITY

Providing customers with professional and assured products is the guarantee of our continuous progress.

Applicable brands of our products