benefiting from the soaring price of lithium, lithium enterprises made a lot of money in the first two months of 2022
On March 21, the lithium battery sector of A-Shares rose strongly, with Sundy Land Investment Co.Ltd(600077) , Aima Technology Group Co.Ltd(603529) , Zhejiang Yongtai Technology Co .Ltd(002326) , Sinomach Automobile Co.Ltd(600335) rising by more than 8%.
According to incomplete statistics of the international finance news, as of March 21, a total of 11 lithium enterprises disclosed their business data in the first two months of this year.
volume and price increase
Guangdong Tonze Electric Co.Ltd(002759) single quarter net profit may reach a record high. On the evening of March 20, Guangdong Tonze Electric Co.Ltd(002759) disclosed the performance forecast for the first quarter. It is estimated that the net profit attributable to the parent company will reach 400 million yuan to 440 million yuan in the first quarter of 2022, with a year-on-year increase of 742.8% to 827.08% Guangdong Tonze Electric Co.Ltd(002759) said that in the first quarter of 2022, the company’s lithium hexafluorophosphate production unit continued to maintain full capacity production, the production and sales volume of lithium hexafluorophosphate increased significantly compared with the first quarter of 2021, and the sales price also increased significantly compared with the first quarter of 2021.
According to the announcement of Sinomine Resource Group Co.Ltd(002738) on the evening of March 17, according to the preliminary accounting of the company, from January to February 2022, the company achieved an operating revenue of about 1.127 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 417.7%, and a net profit attributable to the parent company of about 486 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 117012% Sinomine Resource Group Co.Ltd(002738) said that due to the release of new production capacity and the rise of lithium salt product price, the profitability of the company increased significantly year-on-year.
The net operating profit of the parent company increased by about 6.5% year-on-year to about 6.5 billion yuan in the first two months of this year. The company’s performance growth is mainly due to the continuous rapid development of lithium battery new energy industry, which drives the rising price of lithium carbonate. From January to February 2022, Yongxing Special Materials Technology Co.Ltd(002756) lithium battery new energy business achieved an operating revenue of about 620 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 670%, and a net profit attributable to the parent company of about 420 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 3700%.
The performance growth of “two giants of lithium industry” is also bright. From January to February 2022, the output of Tianqi Lithium Corporation(002466) lithium concentrate increased by about 39% year-on-year, the sales volume increased by about 56% year-on-year, and the operating revenue of lithium concentrate is expected to increase by about 366% year-on-year; The operating revenue of lithium compounds and their derivatives is expected to increase by about 492% year-on-year.
As for the rising performance, Tianqi Lithium Corporation(002466) pointed out that in 2022, the imbalance between supply and demand of lithium products has become more and more obvious due to the significant growth of demand and sales of downstream new energy vehicles. The sales price of the company’s main lithium salt products has increased rapidly, and the supply of products is in short supply. It should be noted that Tianqi Lithium Corporation(002466) did not give specific performance data, but only announced the increase.
Due to the simultaneous rise of product volume and price, Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) in the first two months of 2022, the operating revenue was about 3.6 billion yuan, an increase of about 260% year-on-year; The net profit attributable to the parent company was about 1.4 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of about 300%, and the deduction of non net profit was about 1.8 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of about 1000%.
lithium carbonate price increased by more than seven times
The strong price increase is behind the strong performance of lithium. According to the monitoring data of business society, the battery grade lithium carbonate was 499600 yuan / ton on March 18. On December 18, 2021, the price of battery grade lithium carbonate was still about 248000 yuan / ton, with an increase of 101% in three months. At the beginning of 2021, the price of lithium carbonate was less than 60000 yuan / ton, up more than 700% so far.
Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the automotive industry innovation research center of Northern University of technology, previously told the reporter of the international finance news that due to the strong demand in the new energy vehicle market, which exceeded the supply capacity of the upstream, the supply was in short supply, resulting in a rise in prices.
Guotai Junan Securities Co.Ltd(601211) research report also points out that the rapid rise in the price of lithium carbonate is mainly due to the urgent demand for lithium carbonate from lithium iron phosphate manufacturers, especially from overseas energy storage batteries.
In terms of supply, the reduction of lithium salt production is also an incentive to push up prices. According to the statistics of Cathay Pacific Securities, in January 2022, lithium salt and material manufacturers successively overhauled, and the output of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide decreased by 3% month on month. In addition, some analysts believe that there is no lack of speculation factors in this round of lithium carbonate price surge, and some lithium salt suppliers and intermediate traders hoard goods and are reluctant to sell.
However, the price rise of lithium carbonate is slowing down, and the price adjustment range of enterprises has also decreased. The business agency said that at present, the output of the supply side began to increase, some output in Qinghai was released, and the tension of lithium carbonate was alleviated. The downstream material factory has also basically completed the procurement this month. It tends to be cautious about the procurement of high priced lithium salts. There are few transactions in the market, and most manufacturers are mainly on the sidelines.
The soaring lithium price has attracted the attention of regulators. The Ministry of industry and information technology announced on March 18 that in order to ensure the supply and price stability of lithium resource products and promote the healthy development of new energy vehicles and power battery industry, the Department of raw materials industry and the first Department of equipment industry of the Ministry of industry and information technology, together with the price department of the national development and Reform Commission, the price supervision and inspection department of the State Administration of market supervision and the Bureau of anti unfair competition, organized and held a symposium on the operation of lithium industry on March 16 and 17, respectively Symposium on the price rise of upstream materials of power batteries.
The meeting required that upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain should strengthen the connection between supply and demand, work together to form a long-term and stable strategic cooperative relationship, jointly guide the rational return of lithium salt price, strengthen efforts to ensure market supply, and better support the healthy development of strategic emerging industries such as Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) automobile.
share price deviation
Earlier, some media reported that the price rise of lithium carbonate had triggered resistance in the middle and lower reaches, and some enterprises even planned to reduce production. However, a number of relevant persons from leading manufacturers of lithium salts, cathode materials and batteries denied the above statement.
Beijing Easpring Material Technology Co.Ltd(300073) the person in the office of the Board Secretary once told the reporter of the international finance news: “we do cathode materials, and we will not stop doing business because of the sharp rise in prices, especially considering that the downstream demand is still very strong. At present, the utilization rate of the company’s production capacity is very high, basically in the state of full production, and there is no problem with the volume of customer orders.”
The situation on the demand side can also be seen from the shipment volume. On March 9, Farasis Energy (Gan Zhou) Co.Ltd(688567) announced that from January to February 2022, the export volume of automotive power batteries in China reached 1.61gwh, an increase of 273.93% year-on-year.
However, the pressure of rising raw material prices will eventually be transmitted to the automobile end. The Economic Daily reported that since March, more than 40 electric vehicles from nearly 20 new energy vehicle enterprises have announced price increases.
Lithium carbonate analysts of business society believe that the current demand for lithium carbonate has slowed down, and the downstream market is mainly replenishing the warehouse. In addition, the current severe epidemic situation in China and the implementation of traffic closure management in many regions have affected the transportation of goods to a certain extent. Therefore, the recent price adjustment is mainly stable, and it is expected that the short-term lithium carbonate price may be strong.
Citic Securities Company Limited(600030) said that with the increase of Salt Lake production, the maintenance of lithium salt plant and the increase of imported raw materials, the extremely tight supply and demand pattern of lithium carbonate since December 2021 will be alleviated, and the installed capacity and profitability of downstream lithium batteries are expected to be improved.
The performance of lithium enterprises in the secondary market deviates from the trend of lithium price Everbright Securities Company Limited(601788) pointed out that from August 31, 2021 to March 16, 2022, the price of battery grade lithium carbonate increased by 350%, and the stock prices of Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) , Tianqi Lithium Corporation(002466) and Tianqi Lithium Corporation(002466) corrected by 41.2% and 35.8% respectively, underperforming the Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 index by 27.6 and 22.1 percentage points Everbright Securities Company Limited(601788) analysis shows that it has been nearly seven months since the correction of lithium share price in September 2021. Theoretically, the possibility of rebound of share price cannot be ruled out.
