Zhengye Science and Technology revealed that the order for lithium power equipment in the Ningde era was about 138 million yuan.

Recently, the new energy vehicle sector continues to strengthen, and the upstream and downstream companies of the industrial chain are also highly concerned by the market. On the evening of December 17, Zhengye Technology disclosed that it had won the bid for about 138 million yuan of lithium-ion equipment orders in the Ningde era, and the company's shares rose more than 2 per cent the next day. With the optimistic expectation of the industry for the future of new energy vehicles, how will Zhengye Technology, as an equipment supplier, share the industry dividend?

On the afternoon of December 23, a reporter from the Financial Associated Press came to Zhengye Technology to learn more about the production capacity and orders of the company's lithium testing equipment business, as well as the company's future plans for the business. Zhengye Science and Technology revealed that the current production line is already in a state of "two shifts", and shifts may be needed during the Spring Festival to ensure that orders are delivered on time. The company believes that the current demand for X-ray testing equipment from power lithium battery manufacturers is in its infancy and there is still room for growth in the future. The proportion of the company's lithium testing equipment business is also expected to continue to increase, thus providing support for improving overall profit performance.

The demand of lithium electricity X-ray detection is just in its infancy.

"the demand for this kind of equipment in the lithium industry should still be in its infancy, and it will become more and more exuberant in the future. I feel that the situation will be good for at least the next two or three years," when talking about how to evaluate the growth space of the lithium testing equipment market. Zhengye science and technology said.

Zhengye Science and Technology disclosed in the announcement on December 17 that the company won the bid for the Ningde era equipment order amount of 137.8 million yuan, the equipment type is lithium X-ray testing equipment. Including this order, since the beginning of this year, the total amount of untaxed purchase orders signed between Zhengye Technology and Ningde Times and its holding subsidiaries has reached 242 million yuan, accounting for 23.17% of the company's recent main business income.

By contrast, the company's sales to Ningde Times and its holding subsidiaries from 2017 to 2019 were only 2.6548 million yuan, 2.5491 million yuan and 3.659 million yuan, respectively. This means that in 2020, the cooperation between Zhengye Science and Technology and the Ningde era has made a breakthrough.

There is a process for manufacturers to recognize the safety testing of power lithium batteries. With the rigid requirements of power lithium battery safety testing becoming more and more stringent, the market and users pay more and more attention to battery safety, the growth of the demand of the head company is obvious. " The above-mentioned responsible person disclosed.

The reporter learned that at present, the mainstream structure of power lithium battery is still winding structure. Although it has the advantages of simple process, high production efficiency and low cost, the electrodes on both sides of the cell have large curvature, which can easily lead to cell deformation and distortion in the process of charge and discharge, which leads to safety problems.

The principle of Zhengye Technology X-ray testing equipment is that X-rays are emitted through the X-RAY generator, which penetrates the interior of the lithium battery, and the imaging system receives X-rays and takes pictures. The images are processed and automatically measured and judged by relevant software, and good and defective products are determined, thus greatly reducing the defective rate of lithium batteries in the production process.

"as the number of layers of winding becomes more and more, the security risks are also becoming more and more serious. Moreover, under the multi-layer winding structure, it is difficult to find the problems hidden inside the structure during inspection, and this problem can be well solved through X-ray penetration, "the person in charge pointed out."

An industry source told reporters that before the introduction of third-party testing equipment, lithium manufacturers had tried to use their own equipment to test on their own, and the test method was also different from that of X-rays, but in the end, it did not achieve the desired results. This makes lithium manufacturers switch to third-party testing equipment, which also brings market space for equipment manufacturers.

The proportion of business is expected to continue to increase.

As an intelligent manufacturing solution provider, Zhengye Technology mainly provides products and services such as intelligent testing, automatic production line and intelligent manufacturing solutions for PCB, lithium battery, flat panel display and other industries. In 2019, flat panel display module automation, high-end new materials, PCB inspection automation and intelligent manufacturing integration accounted for 33.65%, 20.61%, 15.45% and 15.24% of the company's revenue, respectively. In contrast, lithium detection automation products are only 14.79%, accounting for the lowest proportion.

But the business structure of Zhengye Technology is changing. A reporter from the Financial Associated Press noted that in 2019, the total revenue of Zhengye Technology dropped by 26.80% compared with the same period last year. Among them, five types of products all have different degrees of decline, but the decline of lithium detection automation products is only 16.97%, much lower than the average. In addition, the company also disclosed in the first half of 2020 that the growth of lithium battery testing automation products was particularly prominent in the first half of this year. Due to the rapid growth of orders, its revenue increased by 112.08% compared with the same period last year.

The company said that due to the continuous release of downstream demand, the proportion of lithium battery testing products will be further increased. However, due to the compliance of information disclosure, the company did not disclose the specific target value. However, according to the reporter's understanding, in addition to the existing customers such as BYD Battery, Yiwei Lithium Energy and Funeng Group, many manufacturers are currently negotiating with the company.

The vast space of the new energy vehicle market and the mainstream position and irreplaceability of the power lithium battery in a period of time will also create favorable conditions for the growth of the lithium battery testing business of Zhengye science and technology. SNE's forecast shows that by 2025, the market share of power batteries will account for about 82.2% of the total lithium-ion battery market share. With the increase of the permeability of new energy vehicles, the demand for lithium batteries has increased significantly, and the demand is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 18% by 2025.

It is worth noting that in 2019, Zhengye Technology's gross profit margin of lithium battery testing automation products was 32.34%, second only to the company's established business PCB testing automation of 35.02%, and much higher than the other three products. On the basis of the continuous improvement of PCB business, the increase in the proportion of lithium detection automation business will optimize the company's business structure and enhance the company's overall profitability.