Lithium diaphragm faucet Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) ( Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) , SZ) sued the “brother company” of Zte Corporation(000063) ( Zte Corporation(000063) , SZ).
Today (April 11), Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) issued an announcement that the company submitted a complaint to the Shenzhen intermediate people’s court, suing Shenzhen ZTE New Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ZTE new material), Wuhan ZTE Innovative Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ZTE innovation) and Shenzhen saienshi Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as saienshi) for infringing the company’s patent right.
According to qixinbao data, ZTE innovation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ZTE new materials, and the controlling shareholder of the latter is ZTE New Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “ZTE new”). Meanwhile, ZTE is also the controlling shareholder of Zte Corporation(000063) .
According to the research report released by Chuancai securities at the end of March this year, in the dry process diaphragm market, ZTE’s new material market share ranked first in 2021 and Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) ranked second.
dry process diaphragm intellectual property dispute
Why does Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) want to sue the above three companies? Because the listed company believes that the patent right of its dry process diaphragm products has been infringed.
According to Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) , a series of dry process diaphragm products manufactured, sold and offered for sale by ZTE Xincai and ZTE innovation fall within the scope of protection of the patents involved, while Sainz is their dealer, and the three jointly implemented the acts of manufacturing, selling and offering for sale of the alleged infringing products.
It is understood that diaphragm is one of the four key materials of lithium battery. It is a thin film with microporous structure, and the cost generally accounts for 10% ~ 20% of the whole lithium battery. During the electrolytic reaction of lithium battery, the lithium battery diaphragm can be used to separate the positive and negative electrodes to prevent the occurrence of short circuit and allow the free passage of electrolyte ions.
According to different technical routes, the diaphragm is divided into dry diaphragm and wet diaphragm. According to the research report released by Chuancai securities at the end of March this year, in the wet diaphragm market, the market share of Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) ranked third in 2021. In the dry diaphragm market, ZTE new materials ranked first in 2021 and Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) ranked second.
At the same time, lithium battery separator has the characteristics of complex production process and high technical barriers. In this context, patents have become an important means for relevant companies to ensure the differentiation of technology and products.
In the announcement, Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) also said that since its establishment, the company has always focused on the R & D and manufacturing of lithium-ion battery diaphragm, with independent R & D capabilities of diaphragm dry method, wet method and coating, as well as strong diaphragm technology reserves. For a long time, the company has attached great importance to intellectual property protection. All diaphragm products produced by the company have completely independent intellectual property rights or have obtained relevant intellectual property licenses.
According to the relevant research report of Debang securities, by the end of 2020, Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) and its holding subsidiaries had applied for 302 patents, including 28 foreign patents; At present, 143 authorized patents have been obtained, including 57 authorized invention patents (including 3 foreign invention patents) and 86 authorized utility model patents, far exceeding other companies in the industry.
Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) said that the lawsuit request is to order the three defendants to immediately stop infringing the company’s invention patent right, and jointly compensate the company for the economic loss of 50 million yuan and the reasonable expenditure of 500000 yuan for safeguarding rights.
diaphragm industry is increasingly competitive
With the expansion of the downstream new energy vehicle market, the market competition in the diaphragm industry is becoming more and more fierce. According to the statistics of GGII, China’s diaphragm production in 2021 was 7.9 billion square meters, a year-on-year increase of 112.5%. As diaphragm enterprises need to invest a lot of money in the purchase of fixed assets such as feeding and batching equipment, extrusion and mixing equipment, casting equipment and stretching equipment, the diaphragm industry has also become a typical “heavy asset” industry.
In this way, leading enterprises can form their own competitive barriers by virtue of their advantages such as scale and equipment, and the market pattern of diaphragm industry is relatively concentrated. According to a research report of Debang securities, the market concentration of lithium battery diaphragm is high. Since 2019, the top three of the industry have stably occupied more than half of the market share, and the top six of the industry will occupy about 80% of the market share in 2021.
Therefore, the market competition in the field of diaphragm is also mainly concentrated among leading enterprises, including Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co.Ltd(300568) and ZTE new materials, which are the protagonists of the dispute.
In recent years, the output proportion of dry process diaphragm has decreased, which may make the competition between relevant companies in the industry more intense. According to the data of the Institute of advanced industry research (GGII), in 2021, China’s wet diaphragm output was 6.06 billion square meters, a year-on-year increase of 132%, and the dry diaphragm output was 1.844 billion square meters, a year-on-year increase of 67.7%.
