Recently, Battery Network counted the results of eight lithium anode materials listed companies in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 and found that, like most companies in the battery new energy industry, the performance of negative materials companies in the first quarter of this year was better than that of last year.

In terms of operating income, among the eight listed companies, the total operating income in the first quarter of 2021 was about 13.581 billion yuan, with an average operating income of 1.698 billion yuan, and the operating income of all eight companies increased; in 2020, the total operating income was about 37.218 billion yuan, with an average operating income of 4.652 billion yuan. Koda Manufacturing, Putai and Zhongke Electric achieved growth in business income.

In terms of net profit, in the first quarter of 2021, the net profits of 8 companies totaled 1.094 billion yuan, with an average net profit of 137 million yuan. The net profits of five companies, including Koda Manufacturing, Shanshan shares, China Baoan, Putailai, Zhongke Electric and Xiang Fenghua, increased by more than twice as much as the same period last year. In addition to Xiangfenghua, which newly landed in the capital market in September last year, the other seven companies made a total net profit of only 105 million yuan in the first quarter of 2020, with an average net profit of 15 million yuan. for the whole of 2020, the total net profit of eight companies totaled 1.926 billion yuan, with an average net profit of 241 million yuan. The net profits of Koda Manufacturing, China Baoan, Putai and Zhongke Electric increased.

In addition, among the eight listed companies, there are 6 with double growth of operating income and net profit in the first quarter of 2021 and only 3 in 2020.

In terms of sales gross profit margin and R & D expenses, in the first quarter of 2021, 7 sales gross margins were over 20% and 4 were growing compared with the same period last year; in 2020, 6 sales gross margins were over 20% and 3 were growing compared with the same period last year; for companies with year-on-year growth in R & D costs, there were 7 companies in the first quarter of 2021 and 5 in 2020.

Increase in sales and profits

The specific performance of the eight companies and their layout in the field of anode materials are as follows:

China Baoan (000009.SZ)

In the first quarter of 2021, China's Baoan achieved revenue of 3.701 billion yuan, an increase of 129.33 percent over the same period last year, and the net profit attributed to shareholders of listed companies was 190 million yuan, an increase of 373.43 percent over the same period last year. The sharp increase in income is due to the growth of income in high-tech, biomedical, real estate and other sectors.

In 2020, China's Baoan achieved operating income of 10.594 billion yuan, down 11.34 percent from the same period last year; the net profit belonging to the owner of the parent company was 660 million yuan, an increase of 119.75% over the same period last year. Among them, China Baoan Group's anode material subsidiary Beit has an existing anode material production capacity of about 133000 tons / year. Beitri's sales of anode materials in 2020 were 75275.82 tons, with an operating income of 3.151 billion yuan, with sales and revenue up 27.61% and 7.57%, respectively, compared with the same period last year.

Cunninghamia lanceolata (600884.SH)

In the first quarter of 2021, Shanshan shares achieved operating income of 3.999 billion yuan, an increase of 227.17% over the same period last year. The net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was 302 million yuan, compared with a loss of 83.7003 million yuan in the same period last year. Among them, the net profit of the negative materials business attributed to the shareholders of listed companies was 102 million yuan, an increase of 101 million yuan over the same period last year, and an increase of 7324.67% over the same period last year.

In 2020, Shanshan shares achieved operating income of 8.216 billion yuan, down 5.35% from the same period last year; the net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was 138 million yuan, up 48.85% from the same period last year. Among them, the sales volume of the negative electrode business reached 58977 tons, an increase of 24.47% over the same period last year, and the income from the main business was 2.5179504 billion yuan, down 1.03% from the same period last year. However, the company's overseas customer sales are still robust, with high-capacity fast charging materials with leading performance, overseas customer sales increased by 53% in 2020 compared with the same period last year.

In 2020, the negative pole business of Shanshan shares achieved a net profit of 212.307 million yuan, an increase of 20.38% over the same period last year, and a net profit of 174.9755 million yuan belonging to shareholders of listed companies, an increase of 18.76% over the same period last year. The year-on-year increase in net profit is mainly due to: (1) the full production line of the first phase of the Baotou integration project in 2020, relying on the advantages of local electricity prices and integrated production lines in Inner Mongolia, reducing costs and increasing efficiency significantly, product profitability increased significantly; (2) the product structure continued to improve, the proportion of consumer products with higher gross profit margin increased; (3) the volume of sales increased significantly.

Pu Tai Lai (603659.SH)

In 2020, Pu Tai Lai realized operating income of 5.281 billion yuan, an increase of 10.05% over the same period last year; net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was 668 million yuan, up 2.54% from the same period last year. In terms of negative materials business, in 2020, Pu Tailai's main business income was 3.628 billion yuan, an increase of 18.84% over the same period last year. The company's annual sales volume was 62949 tons, an increase of 37.57% over the same period last year. The company's graphitization processing realized operating income of 244 million yuan (excluding domestic sales), a decrease of 5.59% over the same period last year.

In 2020, Pu Tai Lai has formed an effective production capacity of more than 70, 000 tons of anode materials, including 60, 000 tons of negative graphitization processing and 55000 tons of carbonization processing.

Due to the sustained and rapid development of the lithium-ion battery market, in the first quarter of 2021, Pu Tai Lai achieved operating income of 1.74 billion yuan, an increase of 112.43% over the same period last year; the net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was 330 million yuan, an increase of 260.21% over the same period last year.

Zhongke Electric (300035.SZ)

Zhongke Electric achieved operating income of 974 million yuan in 2020, an increase of 4.79% over the same period last year, and the net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was 164 million yuan, up 8.34% from the same period last year. Among them, the scale of lithium negative electrode business continues to expand, which is the main source and primary growth point of the company's operating income and profits. in 2020, the company's lithium negative electrode business income was 757 million yuan, an increase of 5.30% over the same period last year, accounting for 77.77% of the company's total revenue.

Sales of Zhongke Electric's negative materials business were 24026 tons in 2020, an increase of 35.44 percent from 17739.75 tons in 2019.

In the first quarter of 2021, the prosperity of the new energy industry accelerated, driving the development of the company's lithium electrode business. The company's operating performance increased significantly in the first quarter of 2021, achieving operating income of 328 million yuan, an increase of 97.29% over the same period last year. Net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was 67.4007 million yuan, an increase of 160.73% over the same period last year.

Koda Manufacturing (600499.SH)

Koda Manufacturing achieved an operating income of 7.39 billion yuan in 2020, an increase of 15.06% over the same period last year, a net profit of 284 million yuan, an increase of 138.39% over the same period last year, an operating income of 2.11 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 65.91% over the same period last year, and a net profit of 191 million yuan, an increase of 526.95% over the same period last year.

It is reported that Koda manufacturing lithium materials business includes the production and sales of lithium ion battery anode materials and lithium carbonate, and the investment layout of cathode materials business. The company began to enter the field of anode materials for lithium batteries in 2015, mainly engaged in the R & D, production and sales of negative electrode products such as graphitized processing, artificial graphite, silicon-carbon composite and so on.

At the beginning of 2021, Koda Manufacturing said that artificial graphite has been mass-produced in the negative material business and has reached cooperation with some major domestic battery manufacturers; the silicon-based negative electrode business accounts for a relatively small proportion and is currently actively expanding.

Yi Chengxineng (300080.SZ)

In 2020, Yi Chengxin was able to achieve a total operating income of 3.97 billion, down 33.7% from the same period last year, and a net profit of-45.468 million yuan, compared with 600 million yuan in the same period last year. In the first quarter of 2021, the company achieved operating income of 1.449 billion yuan, an increase of 63.54% over the same period last year. Net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was 4.55 million yuan, down 61.18% from the same period last year.

The R & D, production and sales of Yi Chengxin's anode materials are operated by Pinghanbo in a wholly-owned subsidiary. Affected by the epidemic last year, the overall business situation of Hanbo in Zhongping declined in the first half of the year, and gradually returned to the same level in the second half of the year as the epidemic weakened.

National Technology (300077.SZ)

In 2020, the operating income of national technology was about 380 million yuan, down 3.81 percent from the same period last year, and the attributable net profit was about 11.2348 million yuan, down 89.19 percent from the same period last year. In the first quarter of 2021, the company achieved operating income of 97 million yuan, an increase of 22.74% over the same period last year. The net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was-16 million yuan, an increase in losses over the same period last year.

The main business of national technology covers two major areas: integrated circuits and new energy anode materials. Among them, the business in the field of anode materials is undertaken by the subsidiary Snow Industries, which is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, as well as graphitization processing services. The main customers are Lishen Battery and Guoxuan Hi-Tech.

In 2020, the national technology anode materials achieved an operating income of 138 million yuan (36.38% of the company's operating income), a decrease of 5.95% over the same period last year, but the company's production and sales of anode materials increased significantly in 2020: the production volume was 4486.72 tons, an increase of 59.20% over the same period last year; sales volume was 4212.75, an increase of 77.15% over the same period last year.

Xiang Fenghua (300890.SZ)

Xiangfenghua achieved total operating income of 420 million in 2020, down 35.6% from the same period last year, 45.453 million net profit from home, down 26.3% from the same period last year, and operating income of 156 million yuan in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 179.02% over the same period last year. Net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was 20.1071 million yuan, up 455.95% from the same period last year.

Xiang Fenghua, as a new member of the power lithium cathode material industry in the capital market, has been optimizing the customer structure, and has been a supplier to global power lithium LG chemistry, BYD, Ningde era, Samsung SDI and other major customers, and is currently building a fund-raising project of 30, 000 tons of high-end anode materials.

By the end of 2020, the company's planned production capacity of graphite anode materials is 60, 000 tons, of which 30, 000 tons are under construction (fund-raising projects), and graphitization has been put into production of 3000 tons and 12000 tons under construction.

In addition to Xiang Fenghua, Boqian New Materials, which was listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in December 2020, also began to develop negative materials for electric vehicle batteries.

Demand warms up and investment heats up

In addition, according to incomplete statistics of the battery network, 12 negative material projects have been announced to invest or start in the second half of 2020 due to the pick-up in demand. Since the beginning of this year, the news of investment and expansion in the field of negative materials has also been reported one after another:

On May 11, in order to promote the integration of the company's anode materials and speed up the implementation of the 2020 non-public offering fund-raising project "graphitization project with an annual production capacity of 50, 000 tons of anode materials for lithium-ion batteries", the company decided to increase its capital by 278 million to its wholly-owned subsidiary Inner Mongolia Xingfeng, and decided to absorb and merge Inner Mongolia Zichen, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Inner Mongolia Xingfeng Company. In March this year, the company also announced that it plans to invest 200000 tons of anode materials and graphitization integration project through its wholly-owned subsidiary Sichuan Zichen Science and Technology Co., Ltd. the total investment of the project is no more than 8 billion yuan, and the project will be implemented in two phases. it is expected to complete the first phase of 100000 tons capacity construction in 2023 and the second phase of 100000 tons capacity construction in 2025.

On May 9, the production line of the first phase of the 30,000 tons of new energy anode material project of Sichuan Mulun New material Technology Co., Ltd. was put into production. At present, the annual output of the first phase of the new energy anode material production line is 8000 tons. The company official said that orders had been received by the end of 2022, a total of 16000 tons, all from coastal areas. In the next step, the company will carry out the second phase of construction, and finally reach the production scale of graphitized anode materials with an annual production capacity of 10,000 tons.

On May 7th, Baichuan shares announced that the company's non-public offering fund-raising project, "5000 tons of graphite anode material project per year", had completed the construction of the main body of the project and the installation and commissioning of the equipment. the trial production plan and equipment trial production conditions were reviewed and approved by the expert group, and began to enter the trial production stage.

On April 28th, China Science Electric plans to increase its investment to Guizhou Gretel New Materials Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary, no more than 1.3 billion yuan, of which no more than 300 million yuan will be used to make up part of the production capacity of Gretel's existing anode material production line, so that it has a full process capacity of 50, 000 tons per year, and no more than 1 billion yuan will be used for the construction of 30, 000 tons / year new anode materials and 45000 tons / year graphitization processing project. After the completion of this new investment and construction project, Gretel, the Guizhou production base of Zhongke Electric anode materials, will become an integrated base of 80, 000 tons of anode materials and 65000 tons of graphitized processing.

On April 23, the Management Committee of the Economic Development Zone of Anju District and Hebei Kuntian New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. held a contract signing ceremony for the project with an annual capacity of 50, 000 tons of lithium battery anode materials, with a total investment of about 2.5 billion yuan and covering an area of about 300 mu. Construction is scheduled to start in October this year. Among them, the first phase invests 1.3 billion yuan to build an annual production line of 25000 tons of lithium battery anode materials, and the second phase invests 1.2 billion yuan to build an annual production line of 25000 tons of lithium battery anode materials. After the completion of the project, it is estimated that the annual output value will be 2 billion yuan and the annual tax revenue will be more than 90 million yuan.

The company's holding subsidiary Inner Mongolia Shanshan Technology Co., Ltd. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Inner Mongolia Shanshan New Materials Co., Ltd., plan to invest in the construction of an integrated base of lithium-ion battery anode materials in Baotou, Inner Mongolia (Phase II), with an investment of about 1.535 billion yuan in fixed assets to build an integrated production base.

On March 2, Bertre announced that it agreed to carry out in-depth cooperation with Shandong Jingyang Science and Technology Co., Ltd. in the field of needle coke and lithium-ion battery anode materials, and jointly set up a joint venture company to invest in the construction of an integrated base of artificial graphite anode materials. The registered capital of the joint venture company is 500 million yuan, and the company holds 55% of the shares. The announcement shows that the overall plan of the cooperation project is an annual production line of 120000 tons of negative needle coke and an integrated production line of high-end artificial graphite negative electrode, which is planned to be built in two phases. the first phase of the project includes an annual production line of 60, 000 tons of negative needle coke and an integrated production line of 40, 000 tons of artificial graphite, with an estimated total investment of 1.512 billion yuan. The second phase of the project includes an additional production line with an annual output of 60,000 tons of negative needle coke and an integrated production line of high-end artificial graphite negative electrode with an annual production capacity of 40,000 tons, depending on the market situation after the first phase is put into production.

On the evening of January 6, China's Baoan announced that its holding subsidiary, Beit, plans to acquire 100% of Sichuan Jinbei New Materials Co., Ltd for 0 yuan. After the completion of this equity transfer, Beitre will fulfill the actual payment obligation of 100 million yuan of registered capital of Sichuan Jinbei, and will invest in the construction of a "50,000 tons of high-end artificial graphite anode material project".

Write at the end

The performance reports and investment expansion actions of listed companies send the following signals: in the market, the domestic negative material market is highly concentrated, the price is relatively stable, the overseas layout of the head company is accelerated, and the production and marketing increment can be expected in the future. in terms of capacity layout, driven by downstream demand, head negative material companies all have production expansion plans, and the trend of graphitization supporting capacity is obvious. In terms of technology, the technology of silicon-based anode materials has gradually matured, and the relevant companies have actively laid out and accelerated their R & D and application.