On the evening of April 17, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy (688778) disclosed its annual report, the head enterprise in the new energy materials industry achieved a net profit of 527 million yuan last year, and plans to share 294 million yuan with investors, with a dividend ratio of 56%. In the first quarter of 2024, the sales of Xiamen Tungsten New Energy's advantageous products continued to increase, with the sales volume of ternary materials increasing by 249% year-on-year, and the sales volume of lithium cobalt oxide increasing by 62.50% year-on-year, ranking firmly in the market leader.
Low-altitude aircraft (eVTOL), hydrogen energy materials, solid-state batteries, etc., Xiamen Tungsten New Energy made a series of major breakthroughs in the application of new energy products with high market attention last year, and the company's high-power and high-voltage ternary products are expected to be applied to the next generation of low-altitude flight energy supply battery terminals. This year, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy aims to make breakthroughs in the R&D and industrialization of cutting-edge technologies such as lithium manganese iron phosphate, sodium electrocathode materials, all-solid-state battery materials, and lithium supplement materials, and achieve breakthroughs in major customer projects.
The position of superior products is stable
According to the annual report of Xiamen Tungsten New Energy, the company will achieve operating income of 17.311 billion yuan and net profit of 527 million yuan in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 40% and 53% respectively. This report card is not easy against the backdrop of the sluggish recovery of the world economy, the escalation of geopolitical conflicts, and the obvious rise of trade protectionism last year.
Xiamen Tungsten New Energy is one of the leading enterprises in the domestic new energy materials industry, and its products mainly include lithium cobalt oxide for 3C consumer electronics, ternary materials for power batteries, lithium iron phosphate for energy storage and vehicles, and hydrogen storage materials for hydrogen energy market. Among them, the company's lithium cobalt oxide products have been in the global leading position for many years, and ternary material products are at the forefront of the industry.
Looking back on 2023, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy Co., Ltd. has consolidated and enhanced the market position and core competitiveness of its main products such as lithium cobalt oxide, ternary materials, and hydrogen storage alloys, expanded low-altitude economic applications such as unmanned aerial vehicles, clarified the development layout of cutting-edge products such as high-performance lithium iron phosphate, lithium supplement materials, solid-state battery cathode materials and solid-state electrolytes, and gradually opened up the market, and promoted various capacity construction projects in an orderly manner.
At the sales level, the sales volume of lithium battery cathode materials in 2023 will be 72,100 tons, of which the sales volume of lithium cobalt oxide will be 34,600 tons, a year-on-year increase of 4.15%, consolidating its leading position in the global market, and the sales volume of ternary materials will be 37,400 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 19.39%. However, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy pointed out that with the mass production and introduction of new projects of downstream customers, the sales volume of ternary materials has shown a growth trend of increasing quarter by quarter, and the capacity utilization rate has recovered to a good level in the fourth quarter.
While developing the main business with innovation, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy strives to achieve a win-win situation for investor returns and enterprise development. In 2023, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy plans to distribute cash dividends of 294 million yuan (tax included), and the proportion of cash dividends to the net profit attributable to the parent company is 56%. At the same time, the company launched a repurchase plan with an upper limit of 50 million yuan in February this year, and the total amount paid by the end of March reached 30.6846 million yuan.
Xiamen Tungsten New Energy promises to provide investors with continuous and stable cash dividends under the premise of ensuring normal operation, and will continue to increase project investment in related fields in accordance with the company's strategic plan in combination with the company's operating status and business development goals, so as to bring long-term investment returns to shareholders.
Cutting-edge products continue to make breakthroughs
In terms of product research and development, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy has invested a total of 465 million yuan in R&D, and has launched a series of new products with high energy density, high safety and high cost performance for high-potential hot fields such as low-altitude aircraft and hydrogen energy materials, and gradually introduced them to the market.
In the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, the high-power and high-voltage ternary products developed by Xiamen Tungsten New Energy for the field of low-altitude aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles have achieved mass production, with a monthly production and sales volume of hundreds of tons and continuous growth. At the same time, the company is developing a new generation of products using a new external interface refinement technology, at 60 °C, more than 10C ultra-high-speed charging and discharging in the material interface stability has been significantly improved, the product gram capacity, high temperature cycle pressure drop, storage performance and other key parameters have been significantly improved, high power output under the continuous cycle capacity has been greatly improved, has passed the customer sample certification, is expected to be applied to the next generation of low-altitude flight energy supply battery terminals.
In the field of hydrogen energy, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy promotes the technological innovation of hydrogen energy materials and phosphate materials, and helps the new expansion of hybrid vehicles and battery cell application fields, for example, in terms of hydrogen energy materials, the company's third-generation on-board hydrogen storage alloy has been stably supplied to new hybrid models of internationally renowned car companies during the reporting period;
In addition, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy has also made some progress in key fields such as solid-state battery cathode materials, solid-state electrolytes, and sodium electrocathode materials.
In terms of solid-state battery cathode materials, the company has achieved initial mass production of halide and sulfide all-solid-state batteries, and actively cooperated with domestic and foreign customers to develop high-nickel monocrystalline cathode materials suitable for sulfide all-solid-state, and has achieved the supply of 100-kilogram samples. In terms of sodium electrocathode materials, the company's layered oxide system materials have been modified by precursor doping and optimization of the synthesis process to achieve process finalization, and the samples have been certified by customers and entered the batch stability.
Continue to forge ahead in 2024
Looking forward to 2024, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy aims to increase its net profit compared with 2023, and the company's operating situation in the first quarter of this year is stable. According to the first quarter report of 2024 disclosed by Xiamen Tungsten New Energy on the same day. The company's operating income for the current period was 3.299 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.02%, a year-on-year decrease of 3.71% in net profit of 111 million yuan, and a year-on-year increase of 4.28% in net profit after deducting non-profits.
According to Xiamen Tungsten New Energy, in the first quarter of 2024, the company will continue to implement the key customer strategy, fully grasp the market opportunities, further adhere to and consolidate the market share of lithium cobalt oxide, and continue to develop the ternary material market, the company's high-voltage ternary materials due to the obvious cost-effective advantages, the sales volume of ternary materials during the reporting period was 15,900 tons, a year-on-year increase of 249.47%. At the same time, the company's lithium cobalt oxide sales volume was 8,400 tons, a year-on-year increase of 62.50%, ranking firmly in the market leader.
From the perspective of the annual planning, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy plans to iteratively upgrade high-voltage lithium cobalt oxide, high-voltage, high-power ternary materials, hydrothermal lithium iron phosphate and other advantageous products, break through the R&D and industrialization of cutting-edge technologies such as lithium manganese iron phosphate, sodium battery cathode materials, all-solid-state battery materials, lithium supplement materials, etc., break through major customer projects, cooperate with well-known enterprises at home and abroad, lay out future product technologies and new products in advance, accelerate the pace of positive research and development, and gradually develop the company into a solution provider for new energy battery materials.
A new round of R&D acceleration has been formed, Xiamen Tungsten New Energy also announced that it plans to invest 278 million yuan to build a new Xiamen Tungsten New Energy High-end Energy Materials Engineering Innovation Center construction project, after the completion of the construction of the project, will add 1,500 tons / year of pilot production capacity. It is understood that although the project capacity planning is not large, it is expected to play a "catalyst" role in the company's R&D innovation and capacity improvement.
According to Xiamen Tungsten New Energy, the construction of this project has three positive impacts on the company:
First, by investing in new pilot line projects, companies can introduce new technologies, new products or new processes to accelerate their own research and development, thereby enhancing the company's innovation capabilities and maintaining its competitive advantage.
Second, the investment in the pilot line project can help the company expand into new markets or increase product lines, accelerate product iteration to enhance market competitiveness, and attract more customers and partners.
Third, the investment in the new pilot line project will help reduce production costs and improve product quality from the design stage, thereby improving the overall operational efficiency of the company.
As pointed out in the action plan of "Improving Quality and Efficiency and Emphasizing Returns", in 2024, the company will continue to promote management and system innovation, accelerate the pace of development of new quality productivity, continue to focus on the deep cultivation of key new energy materials, actively respond to national strategic needs, and strive to build a globally competitive new energy material industry chain. At the same time, the company will further strengthen strategic cooperation with global high-quality customers, optimize product structure, improve supply chain efficiency, promote high-quality development with scientific and technological innovation as the core, and help the sustainable development of the global new energy industry.