Recently, a number of new energy vehicle chain enterprises disclosed the annual report of 2021 and the first quarterly report of 2022. In the context of the continuous rise of terminal sales of new energy vehicles, the revenue of major listed companies in the industrial chain is thickening. Among them, Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) , Ningbo Shanshan Co.Ltd(600884) , Beijing Easpring Material Technology Co.Ltd(300073) , Ningbo Ronbay New Energy Technology Co.Ltd(688005) , Guangzhou Tinci Materials Technology Co.Ltd(002709) , Eve Energy Co.Ltd(300014) , Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) , Byd Company Limited(002594) , and other companies have doubled their business revenue in 2021.
The performance of the new energy vehicle sector is generally rising, but the upstream and downstream enterprises of the industrial chain are facing the current situation of uneven profit distribution. Among them, the performance of most upstream raw material enterprises showed a big outbreak in 2021, but the power battery companies in the middle reaches and the vehicle enterprises in the lower reaches are facing the problem of rising costs. Some enterprises increase income without increasing profits. On the whole, they are “tight” in the upper and middle reaches and a little “tight” in the middle and lower reaches.
Pan Helin, CO director and researcher of the digital economy and financial innovation research center of the International United Business School of Zhejiang University, said that there are two reasons for the uneven profit distribution in the new energy vehicle industry chain: first, the current high global commodity prices; Second, the downstream demand blowout led to the mismatch between supply and demand.
upstream enterprise revenue and net profit increase
Most of the raw material enterprises in the upstream of the new energy vehicle industry chain have achieved double growth in revenue and net profit. In 2021, the operating revenue of Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) , Gem Co.Ltd(002340) , Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co.Ltd(603799) increased by more than 50% year-on-year, and the net profit doubled. Among them, the net profit of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co.Ltd(603799) 2021 engaged in the development of cobalt and nickel resources, lithium cathode materials and ternary precursor products increased by 234.59% year-on-year.
In the first quarter of this year, due to the soaring prices of rare metals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, the profitability of upstream raw material enterprises of power batteries was further improved Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) 1 ~ March net profit reached 3.525 billion yuan, an increase of 6.4 times year-on-year. The core reason is the increase of lithium salt product price and sales volume.
Zhang Xiang, President of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi new energy technology vocational college, said that the precious metal raw materials needed for power batteries belong to rare resources. With the surge in downstream demand, the upstream prices will naturally increase. It is a normal law of commodity economy that rare things are expensive.
According to relevant statistics, compared with the beginning of 2021, the price of spodumene increased by 4 times at the beginning of 2022; The prices of battery grade lithium carbonate and battery grade lithium hydroxide increased by about 8 times.
Most anode and cathode materials and electrolyte enterprises still benefit significantly from this wave of price rise Ningbo Shanshan Co.Ltd(600884) , Beijing Easpring Material Technology Co.Ltd(300073) , Ningbo Ronbay New Energy Technology Co.Ltd(688005) , Guangzhou Tinci Materials Technology Co.Ltd(002709) disclosed the first quarterly report of 2022, which showed that the net profit of the above companies had more than doubled during the reporting period, of which the net profit of Guangzhou Tinci Materials Technology Co.Ltd(002709) in the first quarter was 1.498 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 422.19%.
The gross profit margin of most anode and cathode material enterprises generally increased in 2021. Among them, Ningbo Shanshan Co.Ltd(600884) the gross profit margin of lithium battery material business reached 27.20%, an increase of 10.10 percentage points year-on-year.
middle and lower reaches enterprises increase income without increasing profit
Enterprises mainly engaged in the power battery, the core component of new energy vehicles, are facing the rise of costs and the decline of gross profit margin.
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) 2021 operating revenue 130356 billion yuan, an increase of 159%; The net profit was 15.931 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 185%. During the reporting period, the company achieved sales of 133.41gwh of lithium-ion batteries, with a year-on-year increase of 184.82%. Despite the increase in sales volume and net profit, the gross profit margin of the company’s power battery business has declined due to the rise in raw material prices, down 4.56 percentage points from the same period last year.
Not long ago, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) officials announced a delay in the disclosure of the first quarterly report. According to the analysis of insiders, under the background of the sharp rise of raw materials, the net profit growth of most power battery enterprises in the first quarter of this year will tend to be slow. For example, the quarterly report of Eve Energy Co.Ltd(300014) shows that the company achieved a net profit of 521 million yuan from January to March, a year-on-year decrease of 19.43%.
For power battery enterprises in the middle reaches of the industrial chain, they should not only face the price growth of upstream materials, but also deal with the bargaining of downstream enterprises. Previously, Farasis Energy (Gan Zhou) Co.Ltd(688567) mentioned in the annual report that the reason for the expansion of the company’s net profit loss in 2021 was that the product pricing was low and was not closely linked to the cost trend.
At present, the cost pressure of power battery enterprises is transmitted to downstream vehicle enterprises, which has caused the recent price rise of new energy vehicle products.
Pan Helin judged that new energy vehicles belong to end consumer goods, and blindly raising prices is not realistic. Therefore, on the premise that the total income of the industrial chain does not increase significantly, the profit growth of upstream enterprises is bound to squeeze into midstream enterprises.
Zhang Xiang also believes that the market share of the top ten power battery manufacturers has reached more than 90%, which means that small battery manufacturers lack bargaining power.
New energy vehicle enterprises have also been tested in this round of rising prices of raw materials Byd Company Limited(002594) disclosed in the 2021 annual report shows that the company’s operating revenue during the reporting period was 216142 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38.02%; The net profit was 3.045 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 28%, and the characteristic of “increasing income without increasing profit” was significant.
Similar to Byd Company Limited(002594) are Geely Automobile, Baic Bluepark New Energy Technology Co.Ltd(600733) , etc. It is reported that Geely Automobile achieved a revenue of 101.6 billion yuan in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%; The net profit was 4.35 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 21.9% Baic Bluepark New Energy Technology Co.Ltd(600733) 2021 achieved revenue of 8.697 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 64.95%; The net profit was a loss of 5.244 billion yuan, and the gross profit margin of new energy vehicle business was negative 32.16%.
Weixiaoli, which doubled its revenue in 2021, is still at a loss, and the gross profit margins of the three companies fell month on month in the fourth quarter of last year.
