Miracle Automation Engineering Co.Ltd(002009) ( Miracle Automation Engineering Co.Ltd(002009) . SZ) seems to have tasted the sweetness of power battery recycling business in 2021.
The company reported a year-on-year growth of 18.07 billion yuan in the reporting period, with a year-on-year growth of 19.00 billion yuan in the reporting period, and the company reported a year-on-year growth of 19.00 billion yuan in the reporting period; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 151 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 146.77%.
One of the most remarkable is the power battery recycling business.
Miracle Automation Engineering Co.Ltd(002009) lithium battery recycling business core subsidiary Jiangxi Tianqi jintaige cobalt Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Tianqi jintaige”) achieved an operating revenue of 988 million yuan in 2021, with a year-on-year increase of 52%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 224 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 622.58%.
Looking back on the operation of Tianqi jintaige over the years, the revenue from 2018 to 2020 was 530 million yuan, 450 million yuan and 640 million yuan respectively, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was 60 million yuan, 37 million yuan and 30 million yuan respectively – no matter the revenue or net profit, Miracle Automation Engineering Co.Ltd(002009) the power battery business had a very obvious jump in 2021, In particular, the net profit hovering around 30 million yuan in previous years suddenly increased to 224 million yuan – what happened?
company lithium battery cycle business performance inflection point
Lithium battery recycling business is a strategic business that the company has focused on in recent years. In 2021, the revenue accounted for 23.72%, with a year-on-year increase of 5.62 percentage points, making it the second largest business segment of the company. In 2021, Tianqi jintaige achieved an operating revenue of 988 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52%; The net profit attributable to the parent company is 224 million yuan; A year-on-year increase of 622.58%. In terms of gross profit margin, the gross profit margin of lithium battery recycling business in 2021 was 35.68%, an increase of 13.24% year-on-year.
What factors have accelerated the growth of the company’s lithium battery cycle business?
first, the continuous rise in the price of the company’s products benefiting from the development of new energy vehicle industry, the demand for power battery materials is strong, and the prices of cobalt, lithium and other metals continue to rise in 2021. Connectivity datayes! It shows that the price of cobalt rose from 282000 yuan / ton on January 4, 2021 to 499000 yuan / ton on December 31, with an increase of 76.95%; Battery grade lithium carbonate increased from 51500 yuan / ton on January 4, 2021 to 277500 yuan / ton on December 30, 2021, an increase of 438.83%.
In the past five years, Jintai pavilion has jumped from a maximum revenue of less than 700 million yuan and a maximum net profit of 77 million yuan to a revenue of nearly 1 billion yuan and a net profit of 224 million yuan in 2021. The rise of metal prices may play an important role.
company said that the profit in 2021 mainly came from the income of lithium carbonate. The purchase of raw materials is priced according to the metal price and content of cobalt and nickel. Lithium is not priced directly according to the market price, but reflected in the purchase coefficient. Therefore, lithium carbonate can be sold according to the market price, deducting the processing cost, and can obtain considerable income
secondly, the overall recovery, capacity scale and recovery rate of Tianqi jintaige have been greatly improved annual report shows that Tianqi jintaige produced 1887 gold tons of cobalt, 1024 gold tons of nickel, 436 gold tons of manganese and 1792 tons of lithium carbonate in 2021. The average metal recovery rate of cobalt, manganese and nickel is 98%, and the average recovery rate of lithium is 85%, ranking the leading level in the industry.
In response to the increasing market demand, Tianqi jintaige continued to expand production capacity. In the first half of 2021, the annual output of lithium carbonate production line increased from 1400 tons to 2000 tons; In the second half of the year, the company’s lithium battery recycling business started the production expansion and technical transformation project, which is expected to be gradually put into operation in the second quarter of 2022. Considering the factors such as production line construction and capacity climbing, the overall capacity of the company’s lithium battery cycle sector is expected to be 9000 tons of cobalt, manganese and nickel and 4000 tons of lithium carbonate in 2022; In 2023, 12000 gold tons of cobalt, manganese and nickel and 5000 tons of lithium carbonate will be added.
company said that in order to meet the demand of expanding production in 2022, it has increased its reserves in waste battery raw materials. In the face of continuously high metal prices, the increase of the company’s material inventory may bring continuous high profits to the company
third, the flexibility of the company’s production line is high, which can ensure its continuous high profitability company adjusted the product structure according to different market conditions and demands: in the high boom of battery industry, it mainly focuses on sulfate applied to battery materials, such as cobalt sulfate and nickel sulfate. In the decline of the boom of battery industry, it can also switch to cobalt manganese nickel salt products applied to magnetic materials, ceramic color glaze, rubber adhesive and other industries.
finally, the company continues to strengthen the construction of recycling channels recycling channels have increasingly become the key competition for the development of power battery recycling industry. In 2021, the company gathered resources from all parties to help the lithium battery recycling sector layout battery recycling channels, and deeply bound battery manufacturers, battery application enterprises, joint resource recycling enterprises, battery related financial technology service enterprises, automotive aftermarket service enterprises, Internet and e-commerce platforms, Jointly build the waste lithium battery “Internet plus recycling” platform.
On April 15, 2022, the company announced that it had signed the strategic cooperation framework agreement with Xingheng power, a high-tech power lithium battery enterprise, and the two sides would jointly build a closed-loop industrial chain for the recycling of waste power batteries.
Previously, in September 2021, the company announced that it had signed a cooperation framework agreement with FAW assets, a wholly-owned subsidiary of FAW Group, to establish the first power battery recycling base in Changchun, and successively establish multiple resource recycling bases in FAW Group’s main customer concentration areas and key cities.
what is the impact of waste price increase
The rising price of raw materials has not only increased the downstream sales revenue, but also greatly increased the upstream waste recycling cost – which has also brought many problems to Miracle Automation Engineering Co.Ltd(002009) and other power battery recycling enterprises.
Shen Hua, general manager of Tianqi jintaige, said in April this year that if the market price of cobalt is 550000 yuan / ton, the price of waste may be 700000 yuan / ton. Now the price of waste is more expensive than that of new goods.
Li Baohua, a professor at the Shenzhen International Graduate School of Tsinghua University, also believes that when the price of battery grade lithium carbonate is 37000 yuan / ton, the waste of lithium iron phosphate is 2500 yuan / ton; When the price of battery grade lithium carbonate rose to 500000 yuan / ton, the price of lithium iron phosphate waste soared to 82000 yuan / ton, an increase of 12.5 times and 31.8 times respectively.
The company said that it cannot judge whether the company’s performance is affected simply according to the waste price if the price of waste rises, the company will suffer some losses in cobalt and nickel, but the income of lithium carbonate without measuring cost will rise; On the contrary, if the waste price decreases, the income of lithium carbonate may decrease, but the income of cobalt and nickel will increase
However, at present, the news about the decline in the price of power battery raw materials has appeared in the market. Since April 2022, the average price of battery grade lithium carbonate has been lowered for many times. On April 19, the average price of battery grade lithium carbonate fell by 2500 yuan / ton to 485000 yuan / ton, which has fallen below the 500000 yuan / ton mark.
Zhang Xiang, President of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi new energy technology vocational college, said that at present, the whole power battery industry chain is undergoing internal self optimization to alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand. In addition, Chinese enterprises carry out salt lake lithium extraction projects in Qinghai, Jiangxi and other places, and the price rise of raw materials should gradually stabilize in the second half of 2022. Ouyang Minggao, vice president of China electric vehicle hundred people’s Association and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also said at the hundred people’s meeting forum held in March that raw materials such as lithium carbonate are likely to restore a complete balance between supply and demand in two or three years.
According to the white paper on the development of China’s waste lithium-ion battery recycling, dismantling and echelon utilization industry (2022) jointly released by evtank and ivy Economic Research Institute, the theoretical waste lithium-ion battery recycling in China will reach 591000 tons in 2021, including 294000 tons of waste power batteries. It is expected that the theoretical waste lithium-ion battery recycling in China will reach 2312000 tons and the theoretical market scale will reach 94.32 billion yuan in 2026.
From the perspective of the market environment, battery recycling enterprises have sprung up. Enterprise survey data show that there are 40600 existing power battery recycling related enterprises in China. However, there are only 47 “regular forces” in the list of three batches of enterprises listed in the industry standard conditions for comprehensive utilization of waste power batteries of new energy vehicles successively released by the Ministry of industry and information technology, including Gem Co.Ltd(002340) , Gotion High-Tech Co.Ltd(002074) , Byd Company Limited(002594) , honeycomb energy, Miracle Automation Engineering Co.Ltd(002009) and other leaders in the lithium battery industry chain.
at present, the power battery recycling industry is still in the early stage of development, with low penetration rate. It will take some time to enter the real industry for outbreak or large-scale application however, enterprises like Miracle Automation Engineering Co.Ltd(002009) have begun to taste the benefits brought by marginal changes in the industry such as the rise in the price of lithium carbonate.
Next, the competition will focus on channel construction, production capacity, location layout and other aspects, especially when the tide of power battery retirement is coming.
