“The rising price of lithium battery materials has brought great pressure to our production and operation.” Li Jun, deputy general manager and board secretary, said in an interview with Securities Daily.
Blivex Energy Technology Co.Ltd(300116) is a national high-tech enterprise focusing on the innovative R & D and production of lithium iron phosphate battery technology. Its products are widely used in various models of light electric vehicles and hybrid power, as well as new energy ships and energy storage.
Not only Blivex Energy Technology Co.Ltd(300116) , but also against the background of the rising price of lithium battery raw materials, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) and the founders of Weilai have revealed that the new energy vehicle industry is facing the problem of “battery shortage”.
According to the latest data released by Shanghai Ganglian E-Commerce Holdings Co.Ltd(300226) , on January 12, the quotation of some lithium battery materials rose again, and the cobalt powder rose by 5000 yuan / ton; Lithium carbonate increased by 7000 yuan / ton, lithium hydroxide increased by 5000 yuan / ton to 6500 yuan / ton; In terms of cathode materials, ternary precursors increased by 1000 yuan / ton to 2500 yuan / ton; In terms of electrolyte, lithium hexafluorophosphate increased by 25000 yuan / ton.
In fact, lithium battery materials have been rising continuously since last year. Among the nine types of lithium battery materials, the price has basically doubled since the beginning of last year, of which lithium hexafluorophosphate has the largest price increase.
The price rise of lithium battery materials also greatly increased the performance of relevant enterprises. In the first three quarters of 2021, Yanan Bicon Pharmaceutical Listed Company(002411) realized a net profit attributable to the parent company of 609 million yuan, an increase of 4672.62% over the same period of the previous year. For the significant increase in performance in the first three quarters of last year, Yanan Bicon Pharmaceutical Listed Company(002411) said that the main reason was that the subsidiary Jiujiu technology new energy products were affected by market demand, released production capacity and increased market prices, resulting in an increase in profits over the same period last year, which played a positive role in promoting the growth of the company’s performance.
Statistics show that lithium hexafluorophosphate is the main product of Jiujiu technology. At present, the actual capacity has exceeded 6400 tons / year, and the capacity scale ranks in the forefront of the industry.
On January 11, Shenzhen Dynanonic Co.Ltd(300769) named “leader of lithium iron phosphate material” by securities companies disclosed the performance forecast for 2021. It is estimated that the net profit attributable to the parent company in 2021 will be RMB 760 million to RMB 830 million. In 2020, the net profit attributable to the parent company was a loss of 28.4016 million yuan.
On the same day, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co.Ltd(603799) also released a performance forecast. It is expected that the net profit attributable to the parent company will increase by 217.64% – 260.56% year-on-year in 2021.
Judging from the performance forecasts of some other published related enterprises, Suzhou Ta&A Ultra Clean Technology Co.Ltd(300390) and Zangger mining have benefited from the price rise of lithium battery materials and achieved significant growth in performance in 2021.
“The main reasons for the rise of lithium battery materials are: first, the demand. Under the background of new energy replacing fossil energy, the amount of lithium used in batteries continues to rise, and it is inevitable that the demand will bring up the price; second, the lithium reserves are not high, and the output cannot be increased sharply.” Cheng Ganjiang, director of battery research institute of Qingdian Smart Energy Research Institute, said in an interview with Securities Daily.
The person in charge of Jiujiu technology told the Securities Daily that due to the high investment intensity and long production expansion cycle of lithium hexafluorophosphate project, new competitors need sufficient financial support and long return cycle bearing capacity. Therefore, the increased supply of lithium hexafluorophosphate due to new entrants will be very limited in the short term. Combined with the demand pull of application fields such as new energy vehicles and the current tight supply and demand situation of lithium hexafluorophosphate market, the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate will remain high for some time in the future.
“From the current situation, the pressure of rising the price of upstream materials will continue to exist, while the downstream enterprises of the company mainly face the consumer side, and the pressure of raising the price is great.” Li Jun said that at present, the company is actively reducing production and manufacturing costs, increasing gross profit margin and alleviating the pressure of upstream price increase through technical improvement, reducing energy consumption and improving yield. At the same time, it is also actively communicating with downstream customers on battery price.
According to the reporter of Securities Daily, in order to stabilize costs, many battery companies have to build a supply chain through signing long orders, joint ventures and shares, while transmitting some pressure to the downstream with the help of battery price rise.
“The higher the price, the faster the research and development of alternative technologies will be brought, so as to ensure certain profits such as electric vehicle batteries, otherwise the development will not be sustainable.” Cheng Ganjiang said that as the demand continues to increase, the price of lithium battery materials will continue to rise before the mass production of new battery and new alternative material technologies.
