Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) ( Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) ) increased the capacity of lithium concentrate again.
It is estimated that the capacity of lithium concentrate under the joint venture of M / P International Ltd (hereinafter referred to as “m / P”) will be upgraded from 450000 tons of lithium concentrate under M / P International Ltd (hereinafter referred to as “m / P”, which is the joint venture company) to Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.Ltd(600000) tons of lithium concentrate before May 2024; Meanwhile, rim is planning the second phase of capacity expansion, and it is expected that the lithium concentrate capacity will be expanded to 900000 tons / year by the end of 2022. According to this calculation, after the completion of the above-mentioned capacity expansion, the capacity of MT Marion lithium concentrate will be doubled.
As the Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) most important lithium resource project, MT Marion of rim is also one of the largest spodumene producers in the world. A few years ago, Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) acquired rim in batches. Up to now, it and PMI hold 50% equity of the latter respectively. According to the annual report data, MT Marion has an existing capacity of 45 Shenzhen Kingkey Smart Agriculture Times Co.Ltd(000048) 0000 tons / year of lithium concentrate. According to the agreement, Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) underwrites 49% of the total output of Mount Marion lithium concentrate, and PMI underwrites the remaining 51%.
In February this year, Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) reached an agreement with PMI, which agreed that PMI would provide Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) , after implementing the 49% underwriting right enjoyed by MT Marion, with this part of the underwritten spodumene, and the latter would process it into lithium compound products agreed by both parties and be responsible for sales. According to public information, PMI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australian listed company mineral resources limited, and its main business is mining services, mineral product production and infrastructure construction.
It is worth mentioning that in the aforementioned announcement of the cooperation agreement, Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) disclosed the production expansion plan of MT Marion, which is basically consistent with the capacity expansion data of the first stage. According to the plan, MT Marion will increase the capacity of lithium concentrate by optimizing the production process and developing contact minerals. It is expected to increase the capacity by an additional 20% – 30%.
Starting from the manufacturing of lithium compounds and metal lithium in the middle reaches, Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) is the only enterprise in the world that has the industrialization technology of “extracting lithium from brine”, “extracting lithium from ore” and “recovering lithium”. In recent years, the company has extended to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. At present, the business segment has covered many fields, such as upstream lithium resource development, midstream lithium salt deep processing and metal lithium smelting, downstream lithium battery manufacturing, recycling and comprehensive utilization, and the synergistic effect is gradually emerging. In terms of upstream lithium resource development, the company’s main logic is to stabilize the supply of raw materials through investment and signing long-term strategic procurement agreements. At present, the company has controlled a number of high-quality lithium mineral resources in Australia, Argentina, Ireland, Mexico, Qinghai, Jiangxi and other places in China. The resource types include spodumene, brine and lithium clay. In 2021, the company completed the delivery of the equity and mining rights of Mali spodumene mine. The production capacity of phase I of the project reached 500000 tons of 6% lithium concentrate, and the production capacity of phase II was increased to 800000 tons. The company said that the existing underwriting agreement can support the current production capacity and the raw material demand of the existing expansion plan.
The upstream raw material supply is not in danger, and the prices of lithium carbonate and other products are rising. Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) made a lot of money in 2021, realizing an operating revenue of 11.162 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 102%; The net profit was RMB 5.228 billion, with a year-on-year increase of more than 4 times. The gross profit margin of lithium series products was as high as 47.76%, with a year-on-year increase of 24.36 percentage points. In 2021, the average prices of battery grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide were RMB 117000 / ton and RMB 110700 / ton respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 163% and 113%.
In terms of production capacity, as of December 2021, the company’s production capacity of battery grade lithium carbonate was 43000 tons / year and that of battery grade lithium hydroxide was 81000 tons / year. Recently, the company raised the capacity planning in 2025 from 200000 tons of LCE to 300000 tons of LCE Dongxing Securities Corporation Limited(601198) research report points out that in view of the difficulty of obtaining high-quality lithium resources worldwide, the company has obvious comparative advantages in upstream resource reserves, raw material self-sufficiency rate, matching with processing capacity and other indicators among Chinese lithium companies, which is one of the core competitiveness of the company’s long-term development.
At the same time of high performance growth, Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) has also achieved a good increase in the secondary market, with an increase of more than 200% in the past two years. The latest share price is 128.53 yuan / share, with a market value of 184.8 billion yuan.
