Source: Red Star Capital Bureau
Following the investment by a number of car companies, Sunwoda passed on the good news again, not only got the order of SAIC Motor Group, but also the expansion plan of 12 billion yuan was also on the agenda.
Sunwoda's recent momentum is fierce, continuing to increase the power battery sector, and the loading volume in 2021 is also among the top ten in China, and it ranked eighth in January this year.
Sunwoda is favored, reflecting the power battery anxiety of car companies.
Consecutive orders and investments
60 billion yuan plus power battery
On the evening of March 1, Sunwoda announced that its subsidiary Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Sunwoda Automotive Battery") will invest 12 billion yuan in Zhuhai to build a 30GWh power battery production base project (tentative), of which about 10 billion yuan will be invested in fixed assets, and Sunwoda Auto Battery will sign a project investment agreement with the Zhuhai Municipal Government at the same time.
According to the announcement, the Zhuhai Municipal Government will take the power battery industry as a local key development industry, provide relevant policy support and comprehensive supporting services for the settlement of The Sunwoda production project, and intend to provide about 800 mu of planned land for contiguous projects. Sunwoda will set up a project company in Zhuhai with a paid-up registered capital of 3 billion yuan.
On the same day, Sunwoda also announced that Sunwoda Auto Battery received a fixed-point notice from SAIC Motor to supply power battery assembly products for the ZS12MCE HEV project.
Since the second half of last year, Sunwoda has continued to increase the power battery sector.
On August 9, 2021, Sunwoda also announced that the company intends to jointly invest with the Administrative Committee of Nanchang Economic and Technological Development Zone to set up a company and invest 20 billion yuan in the Nanchang Economic and Technological Development Zone to build The Project of Xinwanda Nanchang Power Battery Production Base. After the completion of the project, it will reach an annual production capacity of 50GWh of power batteries and energy storage batteries.
On December 14, 2021, it was announced that Sunwoda Automotive Battery and Shandong Zaozhuang Management Committee have signed a project investment agreement with a total investment of about 20 billion yuan for the construction of power batteries with an annual production capacity of 30GWh, energy storage battery production lines and related supporting facilities.
Coupled with this investment in Zhuhai, the three major projects are planned to invest 52 billion yuan and build a production capacity of 110GWh. It is expected that by 2025, Sunwoda's production capacity will reach 140GWh. In 2021, the installed capacity of power batteries in the country will only be 154.5GWh.
"Wei Xiaoli" joined hands to increase capital
Behind it are also the figures of traditional car companies
Sunwoda's large-scale increase in power battery production projects is not unrelated to the shareholders of the car companies behind it. Not long ago, the news that Wei Xiaoli joined forces to increase the capital of Sunwoda caused widespread concern in the market.
On February 24, Sunwoda issued an announcement of a capital increase proposal, and 19 companies increased the capital of Sunwoda Auto Battery by 2.43 billion yuan and subscribed to the new registered capital of Sunwoda Auto Battery of 1.237 billion yuan, corresponding to about 19.55% of the equity after the completion of the capital increase.
Among them, Jiangsu Chehejia, an affiliate of Ideal Automobile (02015.HK/LI.US), Sky Top LLC, an affiliate of Xiaopeng Automobile (09868.HK/XPEV.US), and Weirui Investment, an affiliate of NIO Automobile (NIO.US), will increase the capital by 400 million yuan, 400 million yuan and 250 million yuan respectively, and the shareholding ratio will be 3.2%, 3.2% and 2.01% respectively.
In addition to "Wei Xiaoli", the investors also include SAIC Jinshi, Guangqi Xindian, Xinzhifeng/Dongfeng Bank of Communications, which are related to SAIC Group and Guangzhou Automobile Group (601238. SH) and Dongfeng Motor (600006.SH) and other traditional car companies.
As a traditional consumer battery giant, Sunwoda began to lay out power batteries in 2008. In 2014, with the acquisition of Dongguan Liwei and the establishment of an electric vehicle battery company, Sunwoda officially stepped into the field of power batteries. In 2018, Sunwoda began to achieve cell self-sufficiency.
In the first half of 2021, Sunwoda added 15 new models into the announcement catalog, and received fixed-point letters from dongfeng liuqi lingzhi CM5EV, dongfeng E70, GAC A9E, geely PMA platform, geely GHS2.0 platform, SAIC-GM-Wuling Hongguang MINI and other car company model projects. Car companies that have established cooperative relations include Renault, Nissan, EasyJet, Geely, Dongfeng, GAC, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Xiaopeng and so on.
According to the data of China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, the loading volume of Sunwoda in 2021 is 2.06GWh, accounting for 1.3% of the installed vehicles of domestic power battery companies, ranking 10th among domestic power battery companies. In January 2022, Sunwoda's loading volume was 0.23GWh, jumping to the 8th place in the country, an increase of more than 400% year-on-year.
Behind the car companies' favor of Sunwoda:
Power batteries are in short supply
The rapid growth of Sunwoda's installed capacity is related to the battery anxiety of car companies.
In 2021, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China reached 3.545 million and 3.521 million units respectively, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years, and the cumulative promotion volume has exceeded 9 million units. It is expected that new energy vehicles will maintain a high-speed growth momentum this year, and sales will reach 5 million.
Behind the strong new energy vehicle market is the soaring price of upstream raw materials, and the supply of power batteries is in short supply.
On March 1, Baichuan Yingfu data showed that the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate rose by 1.01% from the previous day to 500,400 yuan / ton, breaking through the 500,000 yuan mark. Since the fourth quarter of 2020, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has increased 11 times from 44,000 yuan / ton. The price of concentrates assessed by major overseas institutions is still rising. On Feb. 28, Platts data showed that the FOB price of Australian spodumene concentrate that will be delivered in March is $5,000/mt. The quotation of some battery-grade lithium carbonate is as high as 520,000 yuan / ton.
The agency believes that the supply shortage is difficult to alleviate in the short term, and the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate will continue to rise.
This round of lithium resource prices have been transmitted to the new energy vehicle consumption market, coupled with the decline in subsidies, carbon credit prices have been greatly reduced, the pressure on car companies that "lack core and less electricity" is huge, and the news of price increases, stop receiving orders, and postponing delivery has followed. Finding new and diversified suppliers to ensure the security and stability of the supply chain has become a top priority.
It is worth mentioning that the main battery suppliers of these car companies that increased the capital of Sunwoda are ALL CATL (300750. SZ）。
Liu Hao, an analyst in the automotive industry, told Red Star Capital Bureau that as the leader of global power batteries, CATL occupies more than 50% of the market share and has a great right to speak. In order to obtain the battery of the Ningde era, some manufacturers not only have a passive scheduling order, but even need to pay a huge advance payment in advance, plan B is an inevitable choice.
The supplier of NIO's 150-degree semi-solid-state battery pack is Weilan New Energy. Previously there were rumors that Ideal Cars was associated with BYD (002594. SZ) battery cooperation; Xiaopeng Automobile introduced Zhongxin Airlines (AVIC Lithium Battery) and Sunwoda as the A supply of G9 models.
Geely & Fu Neng Technology (688567. SH), Sunwoda, Hengyuan New Energy, AVIC Lithium Battery, Hefei Guoxuan, Tafil, Yiwei Lithium Energy (300014. SZ), Lishen Battery, Hive Energy and other battery companies reached a cooperation, last year also introduced LG New Energy; BMW introduced Ewell Lithium Energy; Mercedes-Benz invested in Fu Neng Technology; Great Wall Motor hatched the Hive Energy; BYD's circle of friends continues to expand; Tesla's 4680 battery car will be delivered this quarter; GAC Group's Juwan Technical Research Focuses on Graphene Batteries...
Why Sunwoda? Some car company insiders told Red Star Capital Bureau that compared with the world's top ten power battery manufacturers, Sunwoda is not so strong, and unlike BYD and Hive Energy, it gives priority to supplying its own car companies. However, as a domestic TOP10, the technical route of Sunwoda HEV, BEV and PHEV can be satisfied, the battery pack that does not catch fire is safe, and the supply chain is stable enough.
In addition, the Sunwoda Nanchang Battery Base Project (Phase I) is expected to be completed and put into operation in the first quarter of this year, and there may be a release of production capacity during the year, which is also considered to be one of the reasons why car companies increase their capital in Sunwoda.