After the Spring Festival in 2022, benefiting from the strong demand in 5g, consumer electronics and new energy vehicle markets, the price of copper foil remains high. According to the quotation of new energy battery raw materials of Longzhong information, as of February 14, the average price of copper foil in the Chinese market was 107000 yuan / ton, with a high price of 109000 yuan / ton, close to the high price of products last year.
The financial Associated Press reporter noted that due to the high boom of the copper foil industry last year, many copper foil enterprises’ annual report forecast performance increased significantly, and the products remained high at the beginning of this year. What impact will it have on the copper foil industry?
In this regard, Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co.Ltd(000630) (000630. SH) relevant people told the financial associated press that at present, the supply of lithium battery copper foil is in short supply, the processing fee is high, and the market boom remains the same. Insiders told the financial associated press that at present, the new energy battery industry and 5g industry are hot, and the demand for copper foil is large. The momentum of continuous production expansion of copper foil industry will remain unchanged this year.
annual reports of several enterprises
Since 2021, the price of copper foil has continued to rise, with the highest price exceeding 110000 yuan / ton. Affected by this, the annual report performance of copper foil enterprises last year was satisfactory.
Among them, Nuode Investment Co.Ltd(600110) (600110. SH) expects the net profit attributable to the parent company in 2021 to be 390 million yuan to 420 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 7142% to 7699%. Guangdong Chaohua Technology Co.Ltd(002288) (002288. SZ) is expected to make a profit of 118 million yuan to 130 million yuan in 2021, with a year-on-year increase of 449.63% to 505.53%.
In addition, Guangdong Jiayuan Technology Co.Ltd(688388) (688388. SH) is expected to make a profit of 530 million yuan to 600 million yuan in 2021, with a year-on-year increase of 184.25% to 224%. The newly listed enterprise Copper Crown copper foil (301217. SZ) is expected to realize the net profit attributable to the parent company of 349 million yuan in 2021, with a year-on-year increase of 387.26%.
In this regard, some industry analysts told the associated press that due to the rapid development of 5g industry and new energy industry in 2021, the supply of relevant raw materials was tight and the price rose sharply. Copper foil enterprises with production base have stepped up efforts to release production capacity and ushered in a significant increase in performance. After entering 2022, the supply of copper foil products will continue to fall short of demand.
Nuode Investment Co.Ltd(600110) relevant people told reporters that although the enterprise raised the price of relevant copper foil products last year, the products are still in short supply, and the enterprise has not stopped production during the Spring Festival.
The relevant person of Tongguan copper foil also told the financial associated press that the company’s current supply of lithium battery copper foil is in short supply, and the order is in a saturated state. Its major customers include Byd Company Limited(002594) , Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) , Gotion High-Tech Co.Ltd(002074) and other new energy vehicles and battery enterprises. In addition, the company’s 5g communication HVLP copper foil has been in the final round of verification by customers, and the production line has initially possessed quantitative production capacity.
It is worth noting that the prosperity of lithium battery copper foil and electronic copper foil is expected to continue in the future.
According to the report on the special investigation and investment prospect feasibility prediction of China’s electronic circuit copper foil market from 2022 to 2028 released by CICC Qixin international consulting, lithium battery copper foil benefits from the impact of new energy vehicle policies. With the continuous and rapid growth of lithium battery shipments, the demand will further expand in the future. While the electronic copper foil is accelerating to the Chinese mainland with the PCB industry, the demand growth will be more obvious. However, there is still a big gap between domestic manufacturers and the global leading products. The products are still mainly in the low and middle end, and the high-end products have wide replacement space.
production expansion should cooperate with technical improvement
Copper foil products continue to be in short supply, and the pace of expansion of copper foil enterprises is also accelerating.
On January 16, Nuode Investment Co.Ltd(600110) announced that it plans to invest in the construction of a new production base of 100000 tons of copper foil materials in Huangshi City, Hubei Province, with a registered capital of 3.5 billion yuan. It is understood that Nuode Investment Co.Ltd(600110) has a total copper foil production capacity of about 43000 tons / year. With the completion and operation of its 15000 tons / year production capacity of Qinghai Nord phase II and 12000 tons / year production capacity of Huizhou electronics phase III, the company’s total copper foil production capacity will reach 70000 tons / year.
On January 20, Huayou Group Huachuang new materials Co., Ltd. signed a contract with Nanchang Economic Development Zone on the production project of lithium battery copper foil with an annual output of 100000 tons. It is reported that the project, with a total investment of 10 billion yuan, will start in April this year and is planned to be completed and put into trial operation in April 2023. On February 8, Guangdong Jiayuan Technology Co.Ltd(688388) announced that it would raise 5.6 billion yuan to build a joint venture with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) and plan to build a high-performance copper foil project with an annual output of 100000 tons.
According to the prediction of copper foil branch of China Electronic Materials Industry Association, 100500 tons of new copper foil production capacity will be added in 2022, of which 85% will be lithium copper foil, about 85000 tons. However, it can not be ignored that the copper foil production process is complex, and the cycle from production capacity construction to formal production is three years. The copper foil production capacity under construction is difficult to resolve the situation of copper foil in short supply in the short term.
However, some insiders told the financial associated press that now, due to the large competition in the new energy battery industry, downstream enterprises have a certain sense of crisis about the stable supply of materials. Therefore, most downstream enterprises hope to cooperate with copper foil enterprises, which has pushed up the prosperity of the copper foil industry to a certain extent. However, at present, all the capacity under construction is officially put into production, and the supply of copper foil may be in surplus.
In addition, with the technological development of downstream industries, the quality requirements of copper foil are becoming higher and higher. Since the reduction of the thickness of lithium battery copper foil has an obvious effect on improving the energy density of lithium battery, since 2017, the thickness of lithium battery copper foil has transitioned from 8 microns to 6 microns, and then developed to the current 4.5 microns. The thinner the thickness of copper foil, the greater the difficulty of production, which poses a challenge to relevant production enterprises.
At present, a few enterprises such as Nuode Investment Co.Ltd(600110) and Defu technology have announced that they can supply 4.5 micron copper foil in batch. At the same time, new projects have also planned the production capacity of 4.5 micron copper foil to further expand its competitiveness in extremely thin copper foil. If other enterprises want to maintain their competitiveness, it is urgent to improve their own technology.
