Toward the end of 2022, the pace of power battery enterprises seeking to be listed is still accelerating. Recently, Ruipu Lanjun submitted an application for listing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and planned to list on the main board. This is another top 10 power battery loading enterprise that started the listing process after China Innovation Airport Exchange was listed and Honeycomb Energy's IPO was accepted.
Throughout 2022, the key words of the power battery industry are "listing" and "expansion". Power battery enterprises are running against the wind with the help of capital, and the scale advantage of the industrial chain is becoming more and more stable.
Facing the coming 2023, what changes and breakthroughs will power battery enterprises face with the help of capital?
Power battery enterprises accelerate to seek listing
Facing the vigorous development of the industry, power battery enterprises began to enter the capital market.
In October, Innovative Airlines, the third largest power battery manufacturer in China, was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the "first power battery stock" of Hong Kong stocks; In November, Honeycomb Energy submitted its prospectus for listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. Subsequently, Ganfeng Lithium also started the feasibility study of Ganfeng Lithium's split listing in Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Not only are they listed on A-shares and Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Since this year, Guoxuan Hi Tech and Xinwangda have successively issued Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange in order to broaden their financing channels.
On December 20, at the 7th International Summit on Power Battery Applications, Zhang Qiang, General Manager of Tianjin Lishen, said that the company was splitting its consumer battery and power battery businesses, and the consumer battery business would be connected with the capital market through backdoor restructuring.
Not long ago, two subsidiaries of Tianjin Lishen have been backdoor listed on Meiliyun, while its power battery sector has not yet landed in the capital market.
Zhang Qiang said that the company's power battery business hoped to complete the second round of financing in the first half of next year, after which it would start IPO. It is expected that the power battery sector will be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in 2024 and 2025.
As a former leading power battery enterprise, Tianjin Lishen's development has been different from that of Ningde Times, BYD and Guoxuan Hi Tech because of its unsuccessful listing.
"Tianjin Lishen has been falling behind since its IPO failure in recent years, and has missed the rapid development period of the industry. If you want to further expand the market share, you must seek to connect with the capital market." Huang Wei, the general manager of Wanchuang Investment Bank, told the Securities Daily.
The relevant person in charge of Guoxuan High Tech said to the reporter of Securities Daily that power battery, as a key component of new energy vehicles, is also an important part of the energy transformation. Governments of all countries have provided policy support, so power battery enterprises are favored by capital. With the continuous growth of market penetration of new energy vehicles, the demand for power batteries is also growing. Enterprises including Guoxuan High Tech have been promoting the development of battery technology, and the energy density and safety performance are constantly improving, which has expanded the application scope of power battery in automobile, energy storage and other fields, which is one of the reasons why power battery enterprises are constantly seeking to be listed.
The industrial chain and scale advantages are constantly highlighted
Under the huge market demand, continuous expansion of capacity will become a must for power battery enterprises in 2022.
Since this year, Ningde Times, Xinwangda and other listed companies have announced 10 billion yuan expansion plans; Recently, Ruipu Lanjun, who is sprinting for the IPO of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, one of the main purposes of its raised funds is to expand production capacity; In order to seize the market opportunity, Tianjin Lishen, which has not yet been listed, also announced the capacity expansion of more than 10 billion yuan.
According to incomplete statistics of Battery Network, there were 94 newly announced investment expansion projects in the field of lithium battery production and manufacturing alone in the year (as of December 5). Among them, 76 announced the investment amount, with the total amount exceeding 874.7 billion yuan, and the average investment amount of a single project exceeding 11.5 billion yuan.
In 2022, which is full of uncertainty, the power battery industry will become a beautiful scene in the capital market.
"The main reason why power battery enterprises seek to go public is that the downstream demand is strong, and the market has a high demand for advanced production capacity. In response to the market demand, enterprises are also constantly expanding advanced production capacity, reducing production costs and improving the progressiveness of 名媛直播. In this case, enterprises need to continue to have capital support." Qi Haishen, president of Beijing Teyi Sungrow New Energy, said in an interview with the Securities Daily, The power battery is a technology intensive and capital intensive dual intensive product, and the industry competition is very fierce. Only a steady flow of capital can support enterprises to carry out product research and development and technology iteration, so that they have the opportunity to occupy a larger market share.
According to the latest data released by SNE Research, a market research institution in South Korea, in October 2022, the global installed capacity of electric vehicle batteries reached 48GWh, an increase of 73.6% year on year, maintaining stable growth for 28 consecutive months. In terms of manufacturer ranking, two Chinese manufacturers, Ningde Times and BYD, led the whole power battery industry, with installed capacity reaching 18.1GWh and 7.8GWh respectively, and their market shares reached 37.6% and 16.2% respectively. In the top 10 ranking of global power battery installed capacity, there are 6 Chinese enterprises, with a total market share of 64.2%. Compared with the market share of 53.2% in 2021, the advantages are significantly expanded. In contrast, the market share of Japanese and Korean power battery manufacturers has further narrowed, and the current total market share is only about 28%.
In this regard, Huang Wei said that the layout of leading enterprises such as Ningde Times in the whole industry chain determines their dominant position. The second tier of power battery enterprises are locking their production capacity by binding with downstream vehicle enterprises, while making deeper layout in the upstream raw material side.
From the optimistic sales forecast of China's new energy vehicles, the market share of China's power battery enterprises is expected to continue to expand.
Wang Xuelei, power battery analyst of Shanghai Steellink New Energy Business Department, said to the reporter of Securities Daily that the scale advantage of domestic power battery enterprises is obvious. The power battery industry is a capital intensive industry. Only when the enterprises achieve a certain size can they reflect the scale advantage. At the same time, the advantages of the supply chain are becoming more and more prominent. From the key metal resources required by batteries to materials such as positive and negative electrodes, domestic enterprises are far ahead of foreign enterprises in market share. Domestic battery enterprises are deeply bound with upstream enterprises, ensuring the security of the supply chain.
"As a world factory, Chinese enterprises have advanced technology and strong manufacturing capacity. The scale of production capacity is also growing at a high speed. For example, the company has laid out 14 battery manufacturing bases around the world and is expected to achieve an annual production capacity of 300GWh by 2025." The above person in charge of Guoxuan Gaoke further emphasized that China has a mature upstream and downstream industrial chain of battery manufacturing, which not only effectively controls the cost of battery research and development and production, Moreover, a good synergy effect has been formed through the industrial clusters in various places.
Structural overcapacity does not change the industry trend
The new energy vehicle industry continues to flourish, and the production and sales of power batteries are rising.
However, after the large-scale expansion in 2022, the voice of overcapacity in the power battery industry is heard all the time. For the coming 2023, the industry believes that the high demand trend of the power battery industry will continue.
Zeng Yuqun, the chairman of Ningde Times, has previously said that the new energy industry is now in the early stage of development, "only small lotus can show its sharp edge", and there is still more than ten times the market size growth space behind it. In the future, high-quality effective capacity will still be scarce, and there is also the problem of ineffective overcapacity.
Qi Haishen also expressed the same view to reporters. In his view, with the support of the capital market, although the power battery enterprises will have overcapacity, the advanced capacity of the leading enterprises will not be overcapacity, but will be insufficient.
Huang Wei also believes that, on the surface, it is only a structural surplus, and the power battery capacity is implemented in stages. In the future, there is not only an application scenario for new energy vehicles, but also a great demand for energy storage markets at home and abroad.
Against this background, power battery enterprises have begun to strengthen their efforts to layout overseas markets this year.
The above person in charge of Guoxuan Hi Tech disclosed that the company is working with strategic partners to speed up the pace and promote the commencement of new projects around the world. At the same time, the company will become more competitive through industrial integration.
"As far as the existing capacity and demand are concerned, there is no obvious excess. The market's concern about excess is mainly due to the huge capacity planning of battery manufacturers." Wang Xuelei said that, just looking at the planned capacity of batteries, there may be a phased excess in the future. However, under the trend of automobile electrification, there is still huge room for incremental demand for batteries, and the growth is still sustainable for several years. In addition, there is still a large distance between the planned capacity and the actual capacity, and there are many uncertainties. The capacity and demand of power battery in the future is a process of expanding the total amount, and also a process of dynamic balance. It cannot be asserted that there will be an absolute excess.
