After buying peers over and over again, cement giant Conch Cement (600585.SH) has set its sights on the new energy industry.
Conch Cement announced on the evening of March 8 that it will invest 5 billion yuan in 2022 for the development of new energy businesses such as photovoltaic power plants and energy storage. It is estimated that by the end of 2022, the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation will reach 1GW, and the annual power generation capacity will be 1 billion kWh.
This is the latest move of Conch Cement in the field of new energy after the acquisition of Anhui Conch New Energy Co., Ltd. in August last year. On March 9, conch cement shares fell all the way down after the opening of the market, falling as low as 38.54 yuan, a new low since the beginning of December last year.
Throw 5 billion yuan to lay out photovoltaics
Conch Cement said in the announcement that the investment plan in the photovoltaic industry is the goal set by the company's "14th Five-Year Plan" business development strategy. In the future, the company will achieve full coverage of photovoltaic power generation in its subordinate factories.
Prior to this, Conch Cement had made large-scale investments in the photovoltaic industry. On August 30 last year, Conch Cement acquired 100% of the equity of Anhui Conch New Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Conch New Energy") at a price of 443 million yuan, with an appreciation rate of 32.31%. This acquisition marks the official entry of Conch Cement into the photovoltaic business.
According to third-party information, Conch New Energy was established in 2018, 100% indirectly controlled by Conch Cement, the legal representative is Li Xiaobo, and the business scope includes technology development in the field of photovoltaic power generation, wind power generation, and energy storage systems.
At the time of the acquisition, the registered capital of Conch New Energy was 500 million yuan. In January this year, conch new energy underwent industrial and commercial changes, and the registered capital increased from 500 million yuan to 5 billion yuan, which means that conch new energy will be the main carrier of conch cement in the field of new energy.
According to the announcement, as of the end of June 2021, Conch New Energy had total assets of 896 million yuan and net assets of 373 million yuan, and achieved operating income and net profit of 78.9805 million yuan and 28.5094 million yuan respectively during the reporting period.
For the acquisition of conch new energy, conch cement said that this move can provide power support for the company's cement production and play an auxiliary role in supporting the development of the main cement industry; while focusing on the development of the main cement industry, the development of new energy business is conducive to creating a new industrial growth level and promoting the diversified development of the industry.
As early as last year, conch group, the controlling shareholder of conch cement, established a new idea of focusing on new materials and new energy "double new" industries for the development of the group, and has comprehensively laid out photovoltaic energy storage projects. According to the announcement, since 2018, Conch Cement has built 19 photovoltaic power and 3 energy storage power stations, with an annual power generation capacity of 180 million kWh.
As a large electricity user, cement manufacturers have made great efforts to lay out photovoltaics in recent years. In January this year, Shangfeng Cement and the new energy leading enterprise Sunshine Power (300274. SZ) subsidiary Sunshine New Energy Development Co., Ltd. signed a strategic cooperation agreement to cooperate in the development of new energy business such as photovoltaic power generation, positioning the photovoltaic industry + new energy financial investment, mainly relying on the existing plants, roofs, mining areas and other available resources of Shangfeng Cement bases to build distributed photovoltaic power generation and energy storage integration projects to solve the problem of self-consumption demand in each base.
In addition, The Tower Group (002233. SZ) has also entered the photovoltaic field, the company plans to invest about 1.339 billion yuan to build a distributed photovoltaic power generation energy storage integration project, of which the 220 MW photovoltaic power generation and energy storage integration project in the Jiaoling area is steadily advancing, with a total planned construction area of about 2.19 million square meters.
Under the dual carbon target, traditional cement plants face new challengesAs an industry giant, Conch Cement has almost bought the upstream and downstream companies in the industrial chain, and has repeatedly bought itself into the top ten shareholders of its peers.
A month ago, Tianshan Shares (000877. SZ) privately issued 315 million shares and raised 4.247 billion yuan. Among them, Conch Cement subscribed for 74.0741 million shares, becoming the third largest shareholder of Tianshan Cement, with a total subscription amount of 1 billion yuan, accounting for 23.5% of the total fundraising, equivalent to about a quarter of the fundraising.
However, the floating profit of conch cement subscription is not ideal. As of the latest closing day, the stock price of Tianshan shares was reported at 13.92 yuan, calculated according to the fixed increase price of 13.5 yuan, the floating profit of conch cement was about 31.11 million yuan, and the floating profit was about 3.11%.
At the end of last year, Conch Cement participated in the western construction (002302.SZ) fixed increase, with 1.76 billion yuan in cash to subscribe for the latter 251 million shares, with a cost of about 7.02 yuan per share. After the completion of the fixed increase, Conch Cement held 16.3% of the shares of Western Construction, becoming its second largest shareholder, and as of the latest closing date, Conch Cement held a floating profit of about 326 million yuan in Western Construction.
Since 2006, Conch Cement has bought shares including Xinli Financial (600318.SH), Jidong Cement, Qilianshan (600720.SH), Fujian Cement (600802.SH), Huaxin Cement (600801.SH), Evergreen (000789.SZ), etc.
In contrast, conch cement layout in the field of photovoltaic is more intense, and the shot is 5 billion yuan. One of the important reasons is that as a large energy consumer, the low-carbon transformation of the cement industry is imminent. From the overall situation from 2021 to the present, cement prices remain at a high level, on the one hand, the national cement industry carbon peak plan and roadmap will be officially introduced, on the other hand, the output and demand of the whole industry tend to be stable.
Some new energy industry analysts believe that the cement industry, as a high-carbon emission, high-energy consumption industry, is a key carbon emission reduction industry under the goal of "carbon neutrality", cement companies are constantly improving the efficiency of waste heat power generation, for traditional cement plants, photovoltaic power generation will become the preferred choice after large-scale mature use of waste heat power generation technology.
"The high operation of coal prices and the rise in electricity prices will cause cement production costs to continue to rise, and the cost of purchased electricity will have a significant impact on the cost of cement plants." From the perspective of comprehensive cement production costs and market supply and demand pattern, it is expected that cement prices will maintain good resilience in 2022, and cost reduction and efficiency increase and transformation and upgrading are the main factors for traditional cement manufacturers to accelerate the layout of photovoltaics. The analyst told the first financial reporter.
He also said that at present, the cement market is volatile and turning, and the market is likely to enter a new cycle after the development of the previous 5 years of high prosperity. Under the double carbon target, traditional cement producers are facing new challenges of transformation and upgrading, and leading enterprises not only huddle together for heating, but also can only achieve further expansion through acquisitions.