January 2022 news: According to the report released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, last year, China's power battery output was 219.7GWh, and the sales volume was 186.0GWh, an increase of 163.4% and 182.3% respectively year-on-year. Loading volume increased by 142.8% year-on-year to 154.5GWh, and CATL, BYD, Zhongxin Airlines and Guoxuan Hi-Tech accounted for the top four, accounting for nearly 80%. It is foreseeable that this situation will remain in place for a long time.
A few days ago, China's power battery "old three" Zhongxin Airlines officially launched the process of listing in Hong Kong. According to public information, this company is mainly engaged in the research, production, sales and market application development of lithium-ion power batteries, battery management systems, energy storage batteries and related integrated products and lithium battery materials, and its main customers include Changan, GAC, Xiaopeng, Dongfeng, Geely, Jinkang and other car companies.
Up to now, China Innovation Airlines has received three rounds of financing, with an amount of more than 10 billion yuan, and the investors include Chengfei Integration, Jinyuan Group, SDIC Chuanghe, Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund, Cornerstone Capital, Sequoia China, GAC Capital, etc. In September last year, the company completed the latest round of financing, and the post-investment valuation may have exceeded 50 billion yuan.
In 2007, the domestic new energy automobile industry was still in the brewing stage, and Sky Energy was established in Luoyang, Henan Province, becoming the earliest batch of enterprises engaged in the research and development and production of new energy batteries in China. Two years later, the company changed its name to "AVIC Lithium Battery", mainly developing lithium iron phosphate batteries, and its customers are mainly new energy buses. Among the new energy commercial models announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the total number of models equipped with its products has remained the first for two consecutive years.
Lithium iron phosphate batteries have good high temperature performance, light weight and low cost, but the energy density (mileage) is about 20% lower than that of ternary lithium batteries. Consumer demand for the battery life of new energy vehicles is getting higher and higher, coupled with the guidance of the national level, by 2017, ternary lithium batteries have become beneficiaries. CATL and BYD quickly adjusted their business direction and thus established a leading position. AVIC lithium battery reaction is not timely, the installed capacity fell out of the industry's top ten, and from profit to loss, the loss of 330 million yuan.
At the time of the predicament, the company ushered in a new helmsman, Liu Jingyu. The master of management from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics has experienced two highlight moments when he was appointed in danger and led the company to turn losses into profits. The first time was in 2013, when she served as the general manager of Tianma Microelectronics, adjusting the "profit-oriented" strategy to "customer-oriented" and winning orders from huawei, Lenovo, OPPO and other customers. In just ten months, Tianma Microelectronics turned a loss into a profit and successfully ranked among the first echelon of the industry.
In July 2018, 51-year-old Liu Jingyu joined AVIC Lithium Battery as chairman and general manager. She formulated three major development strategies such as culture and talent, product and technology leadership, and quality, led the company to adjust the direction of business development, focused on opening up new markets for passenger cars, and focused on the production capacity of ternary power lithium batteries. With the launch of ternary power battery products, it has won the favor of Dongfeng, Changan, Geely and other car companies. It even replaced the Ningde era and became the largest supplier of power batteries for PASSENGER CARS of GAC.
AVIC Lithium Battery has seven industrial bases in Changzhou, Jiangsu, Luoyang, Henan, Xiamen, Fujian, Chengdu, Sichuan, Wuhan, Hubei, Hefei, Anhui and Heilongjiang. In the past year, the pace of expansion has been accelerating, and in November, the restructuring was completed, renamed "China Innovation Airlines", and a new corporate mission was released "Beyond Business, Benefiting Mankind". According to the plan, its battery production capacity will exceed 500GWh by 2025 and 1000GWh by 2030.
epilogue
Whether it is installed capacity or revenue, there is a huge gap between China Innovation Airlines (2.67 billion yuan in revenue and net profit of 130 million yuan in 2020) and NINGDE times and BYD. From a global perspective, the market share of power battery installed vehicles from January to November 2021 was 2.7%, ranking seventh. The year-on-year increase is more than 155%, but there is still a long way to go to catch up with sixth-place Samsung SDI (4.5%) and fifth-place SKI (5.8%).
Although the challenges are constant, there is still huge room for the market to develop. In the next five years, with the increase in the penetration rate of electric vehicles, power batteries will be in a state of short supply. If it can be successfully listed this time, it may provide an important boost for China Innovation Airlines to participate in the global competition.