The return of the King of Lithium in Salt Lake: a quick overview of Salt Lake shares in past lives and present lives

First, the horse was garrisoned in the salt lake that year.

When the 4789 workers in Chaerhan Salt Lake produce the first batch of potash fertilizer, they may think that one day the Qinghai potash plant will be protected as China's industrial heritage.

But it is absolutely impossible to imagine how much waves the potash plant built by them will make in the capital market.

In 1958, with the production of the first batch of potash fertilizer in China, the predecessor of Salt Lake shares, Qinghai Chaerhan Potash Fertilizer Plant was established.

Although the fate was ill-fated, in the 1990s, the potash plant, known as the "Whampoa military Academy" of the potash industry and the "eldest son" of potash fertilizer of the Republic, finally shook the world potash pattern with the will of the rock. Gradually realized the transformation from manual operation to semi-mechanization and mechanization, which opened the prelude of China's potash fertilizer industry.

The gorgeous transformation from "potash fertilizer" to "mg-Li-K garden"

In 1995, Salt Lake Group was listed, and in 1997, Salt Lake Potash Fertilizer was listed. The actual controller is Qinghai SASAC.

In 2011, Salt Lake Group delisted and merged with Salt Lake Potash Fertilizer "Shuanghu". Relying on the natural advantages of Chaerhan salt lake brine, the business has gradually expanded to Salt Lake shares, which are giants in the development of salt lake resources, such as potassium, sodium, magnesium, lithium and boron. It has been transformed into a comprehensive chemical enterprise integrating natural gas chemical industry, coal chemical industry and salt chemical industry.

Second, there is a trace of the fall of the middle road.

However, Salt Lake shares, which have been transformed into integrated chemical enterprises, have fallen into huge losses. In 2017 and 2018, Salt Lake shares suffered huge losses of 4.159 billion and 3.447 billion respectively, and by 2019, the figure had reached an astonishing 46.662 billion yuan.

Two fires burned away five years' profits

In 2017 and 2018, it was a natural and man-made disaster of Salt Lake shares.

On Valentine's Day, Hainer Chemical, the youngest son of Salt Lake shares, caught fire, causing no casualties, but a direct economic loss of about 19 million yuan. On June 28th of the same year, the suspected implosion accident of the chemical branch resulted in four deaths and an economic loss of about 2.82 million yuan.

The direct loss is only a small part. Salt Lake lost almost all its profits in the previous five years because of the two fires and the shutdown of related projects. Salt Lake reported a loss of 52.09-5.409 billion yuan, while its net profit from 2012 to 2016 totaled 5.778 billion yuan.

Make a huge loss and make additional investment at the same time.

The cash flow of Salt Lake shares is outstanding, reaching 7.147 billion in 2018, but it flows out through continued investment activities. From 2011 to 2018, the net cash outflow from the company's investment activities totaled 43.156 billion. By the end of 2018, there were more than 40 holding companies.

Salt Lake magnesium is the company's main loss-making project in the past few years. The reason is, first of all, the investment is much higher than expected, only the investment in the metal-magnesium integration project has increased from 20 billion yuan to 43.2 billion yuan; secondly, the progress of production has not been expected; by 2018, the daily production capacity of the metal-magnesium integration project is only 50 tons; coupled with the policy impact, the project cost is too high, which is a drag on the company's performance.

Leading exit

On April 27th, 2019, Potash leading Salt Lake Co., Ltd. became * ST Salt Lake because of two consecutive years of losses.

In order to avoid delisting of losses in the third year, Salt Lake, wearing a "hat", began to break its wrists: all the shares and debt receivable of magnesium and Hainer Chemical, which caused huge losses, were packaged into a "Salt Lake share Asset package" for public auction.

There were six auctions and six failed auctions.

Desperate * ST Salt Lake finally found the "pickup Man" Huixin Asset Management Company at an ultra-low price of 3 billion yuan. Because of a discount loss of 46.662 billion yuan, the audited net profit for the third consecutive fiscal year was negative, and was ordered to suspend listing from May 22nd, 2020.

Third, we are now moving forward from the beginning to the next.

Although delisted, but also stripped of non-performing assets, after the operation of Salt Lake shares are looking forward to a comeback.

On the one hand, through the increase of equity to repay 33.7 billion yuan of debt; on the other hand, retain the profitable potash and lithium plate, the company's net assets successfully become regular.

Salt Lake shares were also wiped out by the rise in raw material prices at the end of 2020. It is expected that the gross profit margin of the company's products will increase significantly in 2021.

As a potash fertilizer leader, salt lake shares have a production capacity of 8.6 million tons in 2020, accounting for 64% of the domestic total, and the gross profit margin is also much higher than that of their peers because of the advantage of scale and cost, needless to say.

Another important reason for putting Salt Lake shares at the forefront is lithium carbonate, which is the upstream raw material for new energy vehicles.

Lanke Lithium Industry, a good child of Salt Lake shares, is the first enterprise in China to use adsorption + membrane method (high efficiency, which is one of the future directions of lithium extraction) to extract lithium from salt lake. at present, the company has completed a 10,000-ton industrial-grade lithium carbonate project. another 20,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate project is about to be completed. In the future, it will also marry BYD to build a 30,000-ton battery-grade lithium carbonate project.

In addition, at present, the production cost of lithium extraction from salt lake is significantly lower than that from lithium ore. At a time when lithium mineral energy is limited and lithium carbonate is in short supply, lithium extraction from salt lake is expected to usher in sustained high economic growth.

Tomorrow, Salt Lake shares will resume trading, with the stock symbol still "000792". During the more than a year of silence of the potash king, the potash index has about tripled; the lithium index has about tripled. Whether the No. 792 ship chopped the waves in the salt lake, or drifted with the current, or even hidden behind the salt lake tide, only the market can give us the answer.

Citic Securities previously gave a profit forecast for Salt Lake shares after the resumption of trading, in which the target price was 33 yuan, while * ST Salt Lake closed at 8.84 yuan before the suspension of listing.