Financial reporter Liu Jian
On March 25, Tianji Co., Ltd. announced its 2023 annual report, because the price of the company's main product, lithium hexafluorophosphate, declined, and the company's revenue and net profit in 2023 fell sharply, with a net profit of 36.6409 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 93.04%. The company's many indicators have declined, and the gross profit margin of products has declined sharply in the past two years, but the company is still increasing new production capacity, and the 30,000-ton lithium hexafluorophosphate project is advancing as planned. It is worth noting that the company plans to pay a dividend of 49.6848 million yuan, far exceeding the net profit attributable to the parent company that year.
Lithium prices fluctuated, and net profit fell by 9% year-on-year
The annual report of Tianji shares shows that most of the main data and financial indicators have declined. In 2023, the operating income will be 2.193 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 33.03%, the net profit attributable to the parent company will be 36.6409 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 93.04%, and the net profit deducted from the non-attributable parent will be 36.5592 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 93.08%. It is worth noting that the company's net profit attributable to the parent company and net profit deducted from the non-attributable parent company have declined for two consecutive years.
In 2023, the company's net cash flow from operating activities will be 119 million yuan, down 87.03% year-on-year, and basic earnings per share will be 0.09 yuan, down 93.13% year-on-year. In terms of total assets, it will reach 7.748 billion yuan at the end of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 26.61%.
Founded in 1996 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2015, the company is headquartered in Shantou City, Guangdong Province, and the company's main business is the production and sales of lithium hexafluorophosphate.
Cheng also lithium hexafluorophosphate, defeat also lithium hexafluorophosphate. In recent years, with the explosive development of lithium batteries and new energy vehicles, "lithium" has gone all over the world, and the performance of many listed companies in the lithium battery industry chain has skyrocketed. However, with the high price of lithium falling down, the performance of some listed companies in the industrial chain will decline sharply in 2023.
Skyline shares are no exception. The price trend of lithium hexafluorophosphate is directly affected by the price of upstream products such as lithium carbonate, and during the reporting period, the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate followed the price change of lithium carbonate, and the price fluctuated violently. The price per ton fell rapidly from nearly 210,000 yuan/ton at the beginning of 2023 to about 80,000 yuan per ton in April 2023. It has risen from about 80,000 yuan per ton all the way to about 150,000 yuan per ton in July 2023. Then it fell again, and by the end of 2023, it fell to around 70,000 yuan per tonne.
Entering 2024, in January and February, the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate continued to fall, falling to a minimum of about 63,000 yuan per ton. In March, as the price of lithium carbonate stopped falling and stabilized, the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate also began to rise, and as of now, the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate has risen to more than 70,000 yuan per ton.
The rapid development of the global new energy vehicle market has led to the rapid growth of power lithium-ion battery shipments, and the rapid growth of downstream applications has formed a huge demand for lithium hexafluorophosphate, a key upstream material. According to the "White Paper on the Development of China's New Energy Vehicle Industry (2024)", global new energy vehicle sales will reach 14.653 million in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 35.4%, of which China's new energy vehicle sales will reach 9.495 million, accounting for 64.8% of global sales. In addition, according to EVTank's forecast, global new energy vehicle sales will reach 18.30 million units in 2024 and 47 million units in 2030.
In addition, according to EVTank's relevant statistics, in 2023, the global shipment of lithium-ion battery electrolyte will reach 1.312 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 25.8%, and it is expected that the global demand for lithium-ion battery electrolyte will exceed 2.726 million tons in 2025 and 8 million tons in 2030. According to the calculation of the addition ratio of lithium hexafluorophosphate of 12.5%, it is estimated that the global demand for lithium hexafluorophosphate will be about 340,800 tons by 2025.
The gross profit margin of the main business declined, and the home appliance sector improved
During the reporting period, the company's main business includes lithium hexafluorophosphate and related fluorine chemical products, sodium hypophosphite and related phosphorus chemical products, as well as small household appliances.
In 2023, the company's gross sales margin will be 12.56%, a year-on-year decrease of 19.70 percentage points. From the perspective of the gross profit margin of the main business, in the chemical manufacturing industry, the revenue in 2023 will be 1.935 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 39.97%, and the gross profit margin will only be 10.29%, a year-on-year decrease of 23 percentage points. The revenue of the household kitchen appliance manufacturing industry, which accounted for 11.64% of the revenue, was 255 million yuan, down 14.16% year-on-year, and the gross profit margin was 29.15%, up 7.47% year-on-year.
From the perspective of products, lithium hexafluorophosphate will have a revenue of 1.619 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 43.37%, and a gross profit margin of only 9.65%, a year-on-year decrease of 25.10%. In 2021, the gross profit margin of the company's lithium hexafluorophosphate products reached 62.26%.
In terms of accounts receivable, the company's accounts receivable have also been on the rise in recent years, rising from 248.676 billion yuan in 2025 to 668 million yuan in 2022. However, with the decrease in the sales revenue of lithium hexafluorophosphate in 2023, the company's accounts receivable will also decrease. At the end of 2023, the company's accounts receivable will be 407 million yuan, accounting for 5.25% of total assets from 10.74% at the beginning of the year.
With the decline in the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate, the company's inventory has also been impaired accordingly. In 2023, the inventory value will be 385 million yuan, a decrease of 46.41 million yuan.
The amount of dividends far exceeded the net profit attributable to the parent company that year
Although the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate has fallen, the company is still increasing the production capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate by setting the yard.
On December 5, 2023, Tianji Co., Ltd. announced that the issue price was 9.32 yuan per share, and the total amount of funds raised was 895 million yuan. The raised funds are all invested around the company's existing main business, and all of them are invested in new electrolyte lithium salts such as 30,000 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate and 6,000 tons of high-purity lithium fluoride and integrated supporting projects, which will help the company maintain the advantages of lithium hexafluorophosphate head enterprise, consolidate the self-sufficiency supply capacity of raw materials, and reduce the cost of raw material procurement. The fundraising project is planned to be completed by the end of 2024, and the company's effective production capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate will increase to 37,000 tons in 2025 and 52,000 tons in 2026.
Recently, the company said on the interactive platform that the company's 30,000-ton lithium hexafluorophosphate project is progressing as planned.
The company also said that due to the shortage of lithium hexafluorophosphate in the first two years, related enterprises have expanded their production capacity, and new production capacity has been completed during the reporting period. If the new production capacity is released in the future or is released too quickly, and the market demand for terminal new energy vehicles, energy storage, consumer electronics and other market demand is not as high as expected, or the production capacity of downstream electrolyte enterprises is slow, the industry may face the risk of overcapacity in stages. In this regard, the company said that it will actively seek cooperative customers, deeply bind high-quality customers, achieve mutual benefit and win-win results for both parties, and minimize the negative impact of overcapacity.
At the same time, Tianji Co., Ltd. released the 2023 annual equity distribution plan, which intends to distribute cash dividends of RMB 1.00 to all shareholders for every 10 shares based on a total share capital of 496,847,900 shares, with a total cash dividend of RMB 49,684,800.
According to the audit report audited and issued by the accounting firm, the company's net profit attributable to the parent company in 2023 will be 36.6409 million yuan, plus the accumulated undistributed profits in previous years, and the profit available for distribution to shareholders will be 1.315 billion yuan. In other words, the amount of cash to be distributed this time far exceeds the net profit attributable to the parent company of the year.
According to the company's shareholding structure, the controlling shareholder of the company is Shantou Tianji Co., Ltd., and the actual controllers of the shareholder Xingjia International are Mr. Wu Xidun and Ms. Chi Jinhua, and the above two shareholders are acting in concert, holding a total of 17.79% of the company's shares.
In terms of salary, in 2023, the total pre-tax remuneration received by directors, supervisors and senior executives from the company will reach 9.0806 million yuan, of which Wu Xidun, chairman and general manager, will receive more than 2 million yuan, and Zheng Wenlong, deputy general manager and secretary of the board of directors, and Chen Junming, director and deputy general manager, will receive more than 1 million yuan.