Camel’s H1 net profit estimated to double YoY

SHANGHAI, Jul 14 (SMM) - Camel Group, a leading lead-acid battery company in China, released its forecast for the company’s performance in H1 2021. The company expects that in the first half of 2021, it will achieve a net profit of 491-526 million yuan attributable to listed shareholders, up 246-281 million yuan or 100.85-115.18% on the year.

Camel said that during the reporting period, the company's lead-acid battery recycling industry chain continued to improve and operate efficiently, resulting in the sound development of the business. Its automotive battery sales share also rose steadily in the first half of the year, and overall profitability increased.

It is worth noting that Camel had suspended work for more than 50 days in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a decline of nearly 20% in the net profit. The profits have increased significantly in 2021 as the pandemic has been eased.

Public information shows that Camel’s main business includes lead-acid batteries, secondary lead, and lithium batteries. Its cycle of “production-sales-recycling-regeneration-production and reuse” of the lead-acid battery is most valued by the industry. It is reported that Camel will recycle the used batteries from the customers who buy their new batteries, and the lead in the used batteries will be recycled buy secondary lead producers for more battery production.

In order to further improve the recycling industry chain, Camel has built 6 lead recycling plants with the scrap recycling and processing capacity at 860,000 mt/year, and its planned processing capacity exceeds 1 million mt/year, which can fully meet the company’s battery production needs.

Camel does not only focus on the field of lead-acid batteries. It is also copying the experience of the lead-acid battery recycling chain to the lithium battery recycling business. The company has been improving the layout of low-voltage lithium battery products since 2019, and it is currently promoting the construction of lithium battery recycling production lines.

The company has built a lithium battery recycling pilot line in 2020, according the relevant person in charge. The recycling of lithium battery is the guarantee of the company's closed industry chain of new energy battery.

In this context, Camel has moved closer to its target of a revenue exceeding 20 billion yuan by 2025.

Guosen Securities previously issued a research report saying that it maintains the “buy” rating of Camel Group and expects its net profit attributable to the parent company in 2021 to be 912 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.6%.

Analysts from Open Source Securities also pointed out that Camel’s layout of the entire industrial chain and the comprehensive range of supporting customers are the two important competitive advantages. In particular, the company's lead-acid recycling industry chain has a wide layout and a large recycling scale, which brings scale advantage.