In the new energy vehicle industry chain, more and more enterprises are working together.
On February 24, lithium battery manufacturer Sunwoda issued an announcement that its Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd. increased its capital by 2.43 billion yuan, and a total of 19 companies such as Ideal Automobile, SAIC and Weilai subscribed for a total of 19.55% of the equity. Among them, Jiangsu Chehejia, a related enterprise of Ideal Automobile, invested 400 million yuan to lead the investment. After the capital increase, the company's largest shareholder, Xinwanda Huizhou New Energy, dropped from 71.53% to 57.55%.
Yesterday, Sunwoda had the dynamics of cooperation projects with SAIC after the investment. The company announced that it has received a notice from SAIC Motor on the designated point of the ZS12MCE HEV project, and intends to carry out the "Zhuhai 30GWh Power Battery Project" in the jurisdiction of the Zhuhai Municipal Government, with a total investment of about 12 billion yuan, of which the total investment in fixed assets is about 10 billion yuan.
The new energy track, the model of vehicle manufacturers investing in upstream power battery manufacturers, is not a new thing.
Previously, CATL had reached a joint venture and cooperation relationship with SAIC, GAC, Changan, Geely and other vehicle companies, BYD's joint venture partners were Changan and Toyota, Volkswagen invested in Guoxuan Hi-Tech to become the largest shareholder of the latter, and Mercedes-Benz acquired 3% of the equity of Fu Neng Technology...
In order to ensure the supply of power batteries, it is reasonable for vehicle manufacturers to invest in the upstream. However, the above-mentioned power battery companies selected by car companies occupy a certain dominant position in market share, and Sunwoda just squeezed into the top ten of the global power battery list released by SNE Research, a South Korean market research institute, in November last year.
Nowadays, Sunwoda has won the favor of car companies such as Ideal, Weilai, and SAIC, does it mean that in the current power battery mix, Sunwoda, which started from the consumer battery business such as mobile phones before, can regain the spring in the second growth curve of power batteries?
01
Phones are saturated and cars are on the rise
Stretching the timeline of Sunwoda's stock price trend, it can be found that the company's stock price has sat on two roller coasters. When it rises, it can soar nearly 6 times in three years, and when it falls, it can also retreat more than 80% in three years.
This is closely related to the nature of the company's growth stocks, which have developed with the rise of a certain industry and fallen all the way down when the industry is going downhill.
Founded in 1997, Sunwoda first started in Shenzhen Huaqiang North a shop that sold big brother batteries, and then the business gradually grew, and the founders Wang Mingwang and Wang Wei two brothers set up a Sunwoda lithium battery factory.
At the end of the 1990s, the domestic mobile phone business was just emerging, and Konka, which had already made the TV business flourish, aimed at this blue ocean market. The Wang brothers, with a courage to introduce themselves, got the business of manufacturing mobile phone batteries for Konka, and earned the first bucket of gold from the development of the mobile phone market.
What brings greater development opportunities to Sunwoda is the tide of mobile phone intelligence behind it. Through cooperation with ATL (the predecessor of the Cataline era), Sunwoda cut into the Apple industry chain and became a battery supplier of iPhone 3 and iPods. Taking advantage of the momentum of breaking into Apple's supply chain, Sunwoda went public in 2011 and tripled its stock price in two years.
The good news is that Apple kicked away Sunwonder when making battery supplier selections for the new iPhone 4, and instead threw an olive branch to Sunwonder's rival Desai Battery. Although at the same time, Xiaomi and other domestic Android mobile phones have sprung up, making Sunwoda, a major customer of Apple, a life-saving straw, but after 2015, the decline in smartphone shipments year by year is a heavier blow to Sunwoda.
Seeing the decline in the growth rate of smartphone shipments, Sunwoda also had to find a new way out. In 2015, the company began to lay out the power battery business, and the initial segment continued the battery Pack (module packaging) that was previously used in the smartphone business.
Lithium battery module is composed of battery cells, battery management systems, precision structural parts, etc., in addition to the battery management system, other components Ofwanda are dependent on external supplies. Because The technical content of Pack is not high, Sunwoda's early income can be said to be hard money. The Pack business has a lower gross margin, typically less than half that of the cell manufacturing business.
In order to improve profitability, Sunwoda began to build its own precision structural parts, and through the acquisition of Dongguan Liwei, realized the self-supply of batteries. In 2017, the company began to lay out production capacity in Huizhou, expanding from the battery Pack business to the battery cell business with higher gross profit margin.
It was also in 2017 that Sunwoda's revenue growth rate changed the decline after 2014 and grew against the trend, with a growth rate of 74.4%. But this growth is also short-lived. Subsequently, Sunwoda's revenue growth rate is still difficult to hide the downward trend, and in 2020 hit a record low in the past decade.
On the one hand, the decline in the growth rate of global smartphone shipments is already an unavoidable trend, from the expansion of battery Pack business to battery cell business, Sunwoda can no longer eat the beta dividend of this industry; on the other hand, the new energy automobile industry has not yet fully emerged, and after 2017, it has suffered three consecutive years of subsidy decline, and the industry boom at that time is still relatively sluggish.
Until last year, the domestic new energy automobile industry achieved explosive growth, and Sunwoda, which had previously laid out power batteries, saw the dawn of hope.
02
Car companies are anxious, battery scuffles
According to the data of the Association, the wholesale volume of new energy passenger vehicles in 2021 was 3.312 million units, an increase of 181.0% year-on-year, and retail sales were 2.989 million units, an increase of 169.1% year-on-year.
The outbreak of the new energy automobile industry has driven a number of suppliers in the industrial chain. In particular, the power battery, which accounts for 40%-50% of the cost of the vehicle, is especially the manufacturer behind it.
According to the latest statistics from SNE Research, last year, the total installed capacity of new energy vehicle power batteries in the Chinese market reached 149.2GWh, an increase of more than 230% year-on-year, accounting for 50.3% of the total global market share.
However, even if the installed capacity of domestic new energy power batteries achieved huge growth last year, it is still difficult to catch up with the explosive demand of the downstream of new energy vehicles, and the shortage of supply has become the norm in this field in the past year, and the "lack of batteries" has also become a headache for vehicle manufacturers after "lack of chips".
When the downstream new energy vehicle companies are seriously out of stock, the calls of the midstream lithium battery manufacturers are often overwhelmed, and there are even rumors that the CEO of a new energy automobile company personally squatted at the door of the factory.
And it is not surprising that such a "thirst for batteries" is not surprising. In the new energy automobile industry, which is still in the blue ocean market, the manufacturers have not opened a significant gap in technology, and they can seize more market share as early as possible, which can be said to be the consensus of all new energy vehicle manufacturers. At the same time, because the investment in car manufacturing is huge, selling one more car is a reduction in marginal costs.
The process of seizing market share is intense, which means that the supply chain capacity of vehicle manufacturers cannot drop the chain. In addition to BYD's ability to achieve self-production and self-sales, other vehicle manufacturers have to rely on the production capacity of power battery suppliers. In terms of battery installed capacity, it is also a ride in the Ningde era.
As of January this year, in the domestic power battery installed capacity market share, the first place is still the Ningde era, occupying more than half of the market share, followed by BYD. More second-line power battery manufacturers are crowding the few cakes left.
Catalonia is unique in market share, reflecting that in addition to the recognition of technology such as CTP and CTC by customers, there are also its advantages in upstream and downstream integration and production capacity.
In contrast, in 2020, the Ningde era is not as good as LG new energy in terms of production capacity. By last year, the production capacity of the Ningde era has reached about 160GWh, surpassing LG new energy and about three times that of second-tier lithium battery manufacturers such as Ewell Lithium Energy and Guoxuan Hi-Tech.
Such a Ningde era undoubtedly has strong bargaining power in the face of vehicle manufacturers. But over time, many vehicle manufacturers have also come up with the idea of "not putting eggs in the same basket".
In mid-February, rumors about the "collapse of talks" between catheter and Tesla caused market misunderstandings. Finally, the Ningde era called the police, and the two sides issued a statement to debunk the rumors. Although the cooperation relationship is still strong, the name of the Ningde era has also appeared in the suppliers of Tesla's new 4680 battery. However, it is worth noting that the names of second-line power battery manufacturers such as Ewell Lithium Energy and BAK Battery in the list are also impressively listed.
Nowadays, Sunwoda, which was previously unknown in the field of power batteries, has received investment from vehicle manufacturers such as Ideal, Weilai, and SAIC, and the market has vaguely revealed the following trends: In the Ningde era and bydir duopoly pattern, second-line power battery manufacturers are also gaining opportunities and quietly rising.
This is ideal, Weilai and other car companies, through investment to stabilize the upstream supply chain; for Sunwanda, naturally is also a good thing, such investment relationships often mean more downstream customer resources, for the company's power battery performance growth is beneficial.
However, such opportunities are not unique to Sunwanda. The aforementioned Ewell Lithium Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, and Fu Neng Technology all have close cooperative relations with downstream vehicle manufacturers, and even have more advantages in the layout of technology, integration and production capacity.
The two dark horses in the field of power batteries that broke out in the market share in 2021, AVIC Lithium Battery and Honeycomb Energy, are actively seeking listing financing to meet their own needs for upstream and downstream integration and large-scale capacity expansion.
From the perspective of Sunwoda's capital structure and solvency in recent years, its asset-liability ratio has remained high after 2018, and as of the third quarter of last year, this data was as high as 74.49%. The current ratio and quick ratio, among a number of power battery manufacturers, are also significantly low, indicating that the company's short-term solvency is weak.
Now investing 12 billion yuan to build a power battery project, Sunwoda's debt pressure is not small. It can be expected that Xinwanda, who has just squeezed into this battery melee, still has how many hard battles to fight.
03
End
In a sense, Sunwoda's "transformation" was successful, and when its competitor Desai Battery in the same period was still spinning in the consumer-grade lithium battery track, Sunwoda has ranked among the top ten domestic new energy power batteries, has the opportunity to compete with other manufacturers, and catches up with the rising trend of second-line power battery manufacturers.
However, getting the admission ticket of the new energy power battery does not mean that it is easy to sit back and relax. The power battery hybrid battle has just begun, and more good drama is yet to come.