7.5 billion! 20GWh! Desai battery officially enters the manufacture of energy storage battery.

The field of cell manufacturing officially ushered in a heavyweight player.

On January 20th, Desai battery announced in the evening that the company signed the "Desai battery energy storage battery project agreement" with the management committee of Wangcheng Economic and technological Development Zone, and set up a holding subsidiary in Wangcheng Economic Development District of Changsha City to build the "Desai battery energy storage battery project". The project plans to invest 7.5 billion yuan in fixed assets and distribute the energy storage battery project headquarters, R & D center and production center in three phases. After reaching full production, the project is expected to achieve an annual output value of 12 billion yuan.

Specifically, the first phase of the project will invest 1.6 billion yuan to build an energy storage cell project with 4GWh capacity, and strive to be formally put into operation in the first quarter of 2023. After full production, it is expected to achieve an annual output value of 2.244 billion yuan. In addition, the land of the project will be delisted and constructed on behalf of a platform company set up by the management committee of Wangcheng Economic Development District, and the state-owned land use rights and agent construction will be bought back by Desai batteries at one time within 5 years after completion and delivery of Desai batteries.

The second phase of the project invests 2.95 billion yuan to build an energy storage cell project with 8GWh capacity, and the third phase invests 2.95 billion yuan to build an energy storage cell project with 8GWh production capacity. The land for these two phases of the project will be acquired and built by Desai batteries.

According to the announcement, Desai Battery promises to establish a holding subsidiary with independent legal personality in Wangcheng Economic Development District within 60 days after the signing of this agreement (requiring a holding ratio of 70%) to be fully responsible for the construction and operation of the project.

The transformation of Desai battery

According to an announcement issued in December, the holding subsidiary will be set up by a joint venture between Desai Battery and strategic investors with a registered capital of 500m yuan, of which Desai Battery will contribute 350 million yuan in cash and hold 70 per cent of the shares.

In addition to Desai battery holding 70%, the new company's management platform will hold no more than 3%, while strategic investors will hold no more than 27%. As for which companies or institutions strategic investors include, it has not been announced in the latest announcement.

It is worth noting that the main business of this holding subsidiary includes the R & D, production and sales of lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries and other new energy storage batteries, battery materials and new materials. This means that Desai batteries are about to enter the field of cell manufacturing in an all-round way.

After all, in three investor questions from November to December last year, Desai batteries said they were not involved in the battery business for the time being. And from December 17 issued the signal to enter the cell manufacturing, to this clear investment and capacity planning, but more than a month, progress is also quite fast.

The situation is "awkward"

Desai battery mainly focuses on the business layout of lithium battery industry chain, including Huizhou battery mainly engaged in small and medium-sized lithium battery packaging and integration business, Huizhou blue micro mainly engaged in small and medium-sized lithium battery power management system business, Huizhou Xinyuan mainly engaged in large-scale power battery, energy storage battery and other power management system business.

Business layout is highly targeted, so that Desai battery in the small and medium-sized power management system and packaging integration market segment in a leading position. The company's products are mainly small lithium battery packs and power management systems, mainly used in smartphones, tablets, etc., customers cover Apple, Huawei, Samsung, oppo and other well-known manufacturers.

But the situation of the strong is not immutable. As the business development is too slow, Desai battery in the power business and energy storage business, basically no "achievements". Now, even in the field of consumer batteries, the strong are "around".

In the field of consumer batteries, the market position of the leading ATL is needless to say. Once the same "old partner" 300207.SZ, as a result of carrying out diversified routes and entering into the field of new energy vehicle batteries, it has won 15 projects in 2021 and successfully entered the domestic power battery installed TOP10. At present, its market capitalization has reached 63.344 billion yuan, which is much higher than the 15.718 billion yuan of Desai battery (market capitalization is calculated on January 21).

Another industry rival, Zhuhai Guanyu (688772.SH), is also expanding the scale of its battery business, gradually extending from car start and stop batteries, electric motorcycle batteries and other businesses to pure electric vehicle batteries. It was successfully listed in Science and Technology Innovation Board on October 15, 2021 and entered the supply chain of SAIC in November. At present, the market capitalization is as high as 55.117 billion yuan, more than three times that of Desai batteries.

In terms of performance, in the first three quarters of 2021, the net profit of Desai battery was 492 million yuan, Xinwangda was 609 million yuan, and Zhuhai Guanyu was 814 million yuan. In pairwise comparison, the profit of Desai battery is lower than that of Xin Wanda and Zhuhai Guanyu.

Create a new growth pole

From 2012 to 2020, the net profits of Desai batteries were 144 million yuan, 206 million yuan, 235 million yuan, 230 million yuan, 255 million yuan, 300 million yuan, 401 million yuan, 502 million yuan and 670 million yuan respectively.

In 2021, Desai batteries are expected to achieve a net profit of 750 million yuan to 800 million yuan, an increase of 11.99 percent over the same period last year.

It is not difficult to see that the profit of Desai battery has increased every year since 2012, but it has not exceeded 1 billion yuan in 10 years, which means that its consumer battery business has entered a bottleneck period and needs to open up a new track and create a new profit growth point.

Now, the time has come to open up new business and create new growth poles, and the first stop of Desai batteries is the manufacture of energy storage batteries.

Battery is the key link of the battery industry chain, and having better battery capacity is an important embodiment of the competitiveness of the battery industry. Desai Battery said that the company has a good accumulation in energy storage and packaging integration business, planning, layout and construction of energy storage battery capacity is the inevitable choice of the company's development strategy, and will further improve the company's industrial layout.

On the one hand, the energy storage market has broad development prospects, and has just begun to develop, which is suitable for the layout of new enterprises. Dr. Xie Wei, chief scientist of Zhonghe Energy Storage, said at the recent OFweek 2022 online Summit on Energy Storage Technology and applications that 2021 can be regarded as the first year of energy storage, and 2022 can be called the first year of long-term energy storage.

On the other hand, Desai battery, which has been deeply cultivated in the field of energy storage for many years, is the main supplier of energy storage business of Huawei, Growatt and other companies.

In the future, whether Desai battery can make use of the energy storage battery project to carry out the energy storage plate integration strategy, achieve the expected output value target and improve profitability, we will wait and see.