China Fund News reporter Wen Xi
Funeng Technology (688567) that has always focused on ternary soft-pack batteries can't stand the loneliness. On September 16, this Mercedes-Benz power battery supplier officially announced that it had entered the energy storage track with an announcement. The announcement shows that Funeng Technology plans to invest in the construction of the "24GWh lithium iron phosphate battery project", with a construction period of 36 months. However, Funeng Technology did not disclose the investment amount, but only stated that the investment amount was large.
As the price of upstream raw material lithium carbonate has soared, the cost transmission of energy storage tracks is not as smooth as that of power batteries. In the first half of this year, the profitability of battery manufacturers including CATL and Guoxuan Hi-Tech was not ideal. Against this background, Funeng Technology's choice to join this track to fight is not unrelated to the climax of energy storage bidding that may be the coming.
through lithium iron phosphate into energy storage
FuNeng Technology's announcement shows that the company plans to sign an "Investment Agreement" with the Yunnan Dianzhong New District Management Committee and the Anning Municipal People's Government, and plans to invest in the construction of the "FuNeng Technology 24GWh lithium iron phosphate battery project" in the Kirin area of Anning Industrial Park. It is understood that the project is divided into two phases. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are both built to build products with an annual output of 12GWh lithium iron phosphate battery, which will be mainly used in the energy storage field. The project construction period is expected to be 36 months.
Fineng Technology did not disclose the investment amount, but only stated that the project investment amount is expected to be large, and the sources of funds include but are not limited to own funds, bank loans, equity financing , etc.
Judging from the 24GWh production capacity of Funeng Technology, the scale is not small. CATL's interim report disclosed that the national energy storage lithium battery production in the first half of 2022 was 32GWh, an increase of 113.3% year-on-year. Since the beginning of this year, leading players including CATL, Penghui Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech and other companies have also competed to expand production on the energy storage track.
Funneng Technology is also "not willing to be lonely". As early as 2021 and March 2022, it won the bid for the China Tower battery replacement battery project twice, and the products supplied are lithium iron phosphate battery packs. In recent institutional exchanges, the company also stated that energy storage has continued to receive orders, factory construction plans are continuing to be promoted, and laboratories are also promoting the upgrade of energy storage products.
Moreover, Funeng Technology also has a certain tendency for energy storage track. The company said that it is more inclined to reserve reserves at present. First, because the company will cooperate with the government to carry out production capacity at the same time. Secondly, the company's shareholder China Guoxin has more central enterprise resources, so it has more advantages in promoting its business.
Compared with the lithium iron phosphate route, Funeng Technology has always focused on the ternary lithium route of lithium batteries in the past. The announcement of the construction of lithium iron phosphate battery production capacity means that Funeng Technology has officially entered the energy storage field by "using" this technical route.
ternary lithium battery is excluded
However, the investment in the production capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries is more of a top-down choice.
htmlOn June 29, the National Energy Administration issued a letter on soliciting opinions on the "Twenty-five key requirements for preventing power production accidents (2022 edition) (Draft for soliciting opinions). The draft for soliciting opinions mentioned in the relevant requirements of "2.12 Preventing fire accidents in electrochemical energy storage power stations", "Medium- and large-scale electrochemical energy storage power stations shall not use ternary lithium batteries and sodium-sulfur batteries , and it is not advisable to use cascade power batteries; when selecting cascade power batteries, consistency screening should be carried out and safety assessment should be carried out in combination with traceability data." In other words, ternary lithium batteries are excluded from medium- and large-scale energy storage power stations.In terms of power batteries, Funeng Technology has always been the leader in domestic ternary soft-pack batteries, and is also the only one among the top ten power battery manufacturers in China that still insists on the ternary soft-pack route. From January to August this year, Funeng Technology ranked ninth among domestic power battery companies with a loading volume of 3.17 GWh, with a market share of 1.95%.
data shows that as early as 2014, Funeng Technology had cooperated with Daimler Group to jointly develop and share the leading future battery technology. In November 2018, Funeng Technology defeated many competitors from global first-tier battery suppliers and signed a power battery supply contract with Daimler for 2021-2027. At that time, it was agreed that the total scale of power batteries was as high as 170GWh.
High Lithium salt price backfire profit
However, unlike the power battery track that has long entered a white-hot "fighting" stage, the energy storage track is still in the early stage of explosion.
GF Securities A research report shows that large-scale energy storage bidding in China exceeded expectations in the first half of the year, and high growth is expected to run through the "14th Five-Year Plan". In fact, from the perspective of bidding volume, the total bidding capacity of large-scale energy storage EPCs and equipment in 2021 reached 10.1GWh, of which the bidding in the second half of the year was 8.34GWh. The cumulative bidding from January to August 2022 was 27.70GWh, reaching 273.45% of the whole year last year, an increase of 496.17% year-on-year.
The institution believes that as the bidding season in the second half of the year, the number of domestic large-scale energy storage projects is expected to continue to exceed expectations. Judging from the winning bid price, the current average price of energy storage EPC is around 1.6-2.5 yuan/Wh. The rising cost and the increased safety requirements will increase, and the price of new energy storage bidding will also bottom out and rebound.
However, in the first half of this year, giants including CATL encountered an embarrassing situation in the energy storage sector. According to this year's interim report, CATL's energy storage system business achieved revenue of over 12.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 171.41%, and the energy storage business has accounted for 11% of the company's total revenue in the first half of the year. However, the gross profit margin of the energy storage business plummeted to 6.43%, down nearly 30 percentage points year-on-year. Guoxuan Hi-Tech's financial report also disclosed the energy storage battery business data for the first time, with revenue of 1.279 billion yuan during the period, accounting for 14.8% of the total operating income, but the gross profit margin was only 10.24%, which overall dragged down the company's gross profit margin level.
In this regard, CATL said that the business model of energy storage and power is different from that of customers. The price transmission mechanism of energy storage is slow and is more sensitive to cost changes, resulting in a low gross profit margin in the first half of the year. Similar to the power battery trend, gross profit margin is expected to improve in the future.
As CATL said, rising costs are a factor that cannot be ignored. Recently, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has returned to a high of 500,000 yuan/ton. According to Baichuan Yingfu data, by September 15, the average price of domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate market had reached 510,000 yuan/ton.
Fineng Technology also believes that the supply and demand relationship of lithium carbonate is currently relatively tense, and there will be no signs of significant correction next year, so the tension in supply and demand relationship of lithium carbonate will continue. But the company's management also believes that there may be two important changes next year. One is that mining companies in Australia and South America begin to ship, and the other is that other products are gradually put into the market, such as sodium ion batteries. "Although these factors will not change the supply and demand of lithium carbonate in the short term, they will have a positive impact on the company in terms of market sentiment."
Editor: Captain
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