Per reporter: An Yufei Per editor: Wen Duo
On June 23, on the 32nd floor of AVIC Center in Futian District, Shenzhen, Shengxin Lithium Energy (SZ002240, stock price 59.01 yuan, market value of 51.06 billion yuan) held the second extraordinary shareholders' meeting in 2022.
Image source: Per reporter An Yufei photo
There is only one proposal at this shareholders' meeting, namely the "Proposal on the Sale of equity and related party transactions of Hubei Weilibang and Hebei Weilibang". In the past two years, Shengxin Lithium Energy has gradually divested its wood-based panels, rare earths and other businesses, and comprehensively gathered the field of new energy lithium products. After the completion of this equity sale, the company's forest business will be close to "emptying".
Today, the price of lithium carbonate remains high, according to Wind data, the price of domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate on June 23 was 469,000 yuan / ton, an increase of more than 4 times compared with 88,000 yuan / ton in the same period last year.
How to view the next lithium carbonate price trend? Zhou Yi, chairman of Shengxin Lithium Energy, told the "Daily Economic News" reporter: "At least this year, the price is supported. ”
Divest other businesses and "go all out" for new energy
The wood-based panel business to be divested this time was once the main business of Shengxin Lithium Energy. In 2008, the company was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and its name at that time was "Weihua Shares", which was an integrated production enterprise of forest board. In that year, the company's wood-based panel business achieved revenue of 722 million yuan, accounting for more than 96% of the company's total revenue.
In 2016, "Weihua Shares" introduced Shenzhen Shengtun Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shengtun Group"), and in June 2017, Shengtun Group became the controlling shareholder of "Weihua Shares". In 2020, the company's new energy materials business revenue accounted for the first time more than the wood-based panel and forest wood business, "Weihua shares" was also renamed Shengxin Lithium Energy.
If 2016 is the starting point of Shengxin Lithium Energy's transformation into new energy materials, then 2020 is the beginning of the company's divestiture of wood-based panels and other businesses. Lei Limin, secretary of the board of directors of Shengxin Lithium Energy, said at the extraordinary shareholders' meeting: According to the company's strategic development plan, it is necessary to gradually divest non-lithium battery assets.
At the end of September 2020, Shengxin Lithium Completed the transfer of 55% of the equity of Hebei Weilibang Wood Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hebei Weilibang"), Hubei Weilibang Wood Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hubei Weilibang"), Guangdong Weilibang Wood Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guangdong Weilibang") and Liaoning Taian Weilibang Wood Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Liaoning Weilibang"), generating an investment income of about 240 million yuan.
The "Willy Bond" companies that were sold their controlling interests are the main carriers of Shengxin's lithium energy wood-based panel business. By 2021, the "slimming action" continued, and Shengxin Lithium Energy completed the transfer of 45% of the equity of Guangdong Weilibang and 21.43% of the equity of Taishan Weilibang Wood Co., Ltd., and also sold 51% of the equity of Jiangxi Wanhong High-tech Materials Co., Ltd. and divested the rare earth business. Since then, Shengxin Lithium Energy no longer holds equity interests in the above three companies.
At the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, the relevant proposals of Shengxin Lithium Energy to sell the remaining shares held by Hubei Weilibang and Hebei Weilibang were deliberated and passed. Lei Limin said that this is also a further arrangement of the "previous transaction", further focusing on the company's lithium battery business.
So, when is the remaining 45% stake in Liaoning Willy State expected to be divested? Lei Limin told reporters that because of the local market conditions and other factors, Liaoning Willy State has basically stopped production, and there is basically no substantive business. It now has some land and other assets (the sale) and will also advance in an orderly manner.
Since Liaoning Willy State is in a state of suspension, once the remaining equity transfer of Hubei Willy State and Hebei Willy State is completed, Shengxin Lithium Energy has actually "emptied" its wood-based panel and forest wood business.
When the "mine robbery war" broke out, did the upstream enterprises face challenges?
Shengxin Lithium energy divested other assets, mainly to focus on the lithium ore field. However, at present, companies in the entire lithium battery industry chain are engaged in a "mine grab war" to compete for upstream lithium resources. Will the layout of middle and downstream enterprises upstream have an impact on upstream lithium mining enterprises?
In May this year, the "2 billion lithium mine robbery" incident was hot. The 54.29% equity of Sichuan Yajiang County Snowway Mining Development Co., Ltd. held by Chengdu Xingneng New Materials Co., Ltd. was sold on the JD bankruptcy auction platform, and the final transaction price exceeded 2 billion yuan, which was 597 times the starting price of 3.35 million yuan, setting a rare auction record in the industry.
In April this year, the leading power battery company Ningde Times (SZ300750, stock price of 536.97 yuan, market value of 1.25 trillion yuan) also won the largest lithium mine in Yichun.
In the context of lithium battery midstream and downstream companies increasing upstream lithium mines, how should upstream companies cope with the challenge?
In this regard, Zhou Yi, chairman of Shengxin Lithium Energy, said that the professionalism of downstream companies is not mining, and when they get the mine, they will also find upstream enterprises with professional capabilities to cooperate, "Now on the surface, it is competition, but after the competition is over, it must be cooperation."
So, why did the "mine robbery war" break out? Reillymin said that in the final analysis, it is the strong growth of downstream demand. The development trend of the entire new energy vehicle is very clear, and it is an industry with high prosperity for a long time, so the future demand is very large. In the short term, the supply of mines is indeed a bit unsophisticated, and there will be a situation of grabbing mines.
How do you view this "mine robbery war"? Lei Limin said: "This kind of 'ore grabbing fever' is also the self-supply rate of (raw materials) produced by enterprises in order to ensure the stable and sustainable development of their products. If you only have processing capacity and no raw material security, the first may face the provision of raw materials (problems), and the second is that if you are in the middle of the link, your competitiveness and bargaining power will be weaker. ”
From the high price of lithium carbonate, it can also be seen that the supply of upstream lithium ore resources is tight. According to Wind data, the price of domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate on June 23 was 469,000 yuan / ton, although it was lower than the price of 503,000 yuan / ton in March this year, but since the beginning of May, the price of lithium carbonate has continued to grow.
How to view the next price trend of lithium carbonate? Zhou Yi believes that price movement is always an analysis of supply and demand. "With the data we have so far, the price of (lithium carbonate) is supportive. Our core customers, their expansion is not blind expansion, the future I dare not say for a long time, at least this year the price is supported. Zhou Yi said.
What is the self-sufficiency of raw materials? What is the progress of the lithium mine project
In the context of the tight supply of lithium ore, what is the self-sufficiency rate of Shengxin lithium energy raw materials engaged in lithium mine mining and dressing, production and sales of basic lithium salts and lithium metal?
It is understood that at present, Shengxin Lithium Energy has both hard rock mine projects and salt lake lithium extraction projects. Among them, Jinchuan Oino Mining Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Oino Mining") has the mining right of Yelonggou spodumene mine and the detailed exploration right of SunHekou lithium polymetallic mine in Jinchuan County, West Sichuan Region. Yelonggou spodumene mine has proven Li2O resources of 111,500 tons, and the Sun Estuary lithium polymetallic mine is currently in the stage of prospecting rights.
Lei Limin said that because the overall lithium concentrate price this year is good, so the company put the entire Oino mining into the company's production of the top priority, in terms of human, financial, material resources to tilt it, to fully guarantee its production and operation, hope to achieve this year (lithium concentrate) production capacity of 75,000 tons of target, "this year its own mine to provide (raw materials) ratio of about ten percent."
In addition, Shengxin Lithium Energy also has lithium resources in Zimbabwe, Argentina, Indonesia and other places. For example, in 2021, its wholly-owned grandson company, Shengxin Lithium Energy International Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shengxin International"),will cooperate with STELLARINVESTMENT PTE. LTD. invested in Indonesia to establish a joint venture company, Indonesia Shengtuo Lithium Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Indonesia Shengtuo"), to build a lithium salt project with an annual output of 60,000 tons.
Reillymin said the company expects substantial progress in the second half of 2023 (the Indonesia project). At present, the entire preliminary work is being pushed forward as expected, and the work of land leveling, water and electricity, and equipment procurement is advancing as planned.
Synnex Lithium also acquired a 51% stake in Max Mind Investment Limited, a subsidiary of Zimbabwe Sun Corporation, which owns mining warrants for a total of 40 rare metal blocks in the Sabi Star Lithium Tantalum Mine Project in Zimbabwe.
Lei Limin said that the company is also promoting the Sabi Star Mine Project in Zimbabwe in an orderly manner, and the entire mine is open-pit mining, and the roads, water and electricity are more convenient.
"Our goal is to put into operation the (Zimbabwe Sabisan) mine by the end of this year, which has a production scale of 900,000 tons of raw ore, 200,000 tons of lithium concentrate, and close to 30,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent." After it is put into production, the self-supply rate of the company's own mines will be greatly improved next year. Reillymin said.
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