On March 7th, Azure Lithium Core (002245.SZ) announced that Tianpeng, a wholly-owned subsidiary, had recently received an order document confirmed by Stanley Black&Decker,Inc. ("Stanley Black"). The two sides confirmed that the supply of ternary cylindrical lithium batteries from 2022 to 2024 was 120 million, 240 million and 280 million respectively. Among them, for 2022, with the agreement of both parties, it can be increased to a maximum of no more than 200 million.
According to the announcement, Stanley Black & Decker is one of the world's largest manufacturers of tool products, Fortune 500 companies, with Stanley STANLEY, Dewei DeWALT, Black & Decker BLACK&DECKER and other first-tier tool brands.
It is reported that Tianpeng Power supply is not only the core enterprise of Azure Lithium core ternary power lithium battery business, but also the main source of revenue and profit of Azure Lithium Core. After more than 10 years of development, Tianpeng Power has become a leading company in the field of tool lithium battery in China.
In recent years, Tianpeng Power's sales to Stanley Patek have maintained rapid growth. From January to September 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, Tianpeng Power sold lithium batteries to Stanley Patek for about 6.95 million yuan, 53.92 million yuan, 125 million yuan and 194.5 million yuan respectively, accounting for about 0.70%, 5.59%, 8.64% and 10.44% of lithium battery business revenue in the corresponding period, respectively.
In addition, in August last year, Azure Lithium Core also announced that Tianpeng Power received and confirmed the German Bosch Group (BOSCH) order documents, and the two sides confirmed that the total supply of 18650 ternary cylindrical lithium batteries in 2022 was 87 million.
At present, the production line of Azure lithium-core lithium battery maintains 24-hour production in addition to maintenance. The company has an actual annual production capacity of nearly 400 million in 21 years, and is expected to have an annual production capacity of more than 700 million in 22 years. Based on this calculation, the order supply of Stanley Black and Bosch Group in 2022 will account for at least 29.57% of Tianpeng's estimated 2022 available capacity.
Against this background, Azure Lithium Core began to accelerate capacity expansion last year.
On October 9, 2021, Azure Lithium Core restarted the 2021 non-public offering of A-shares. According to the plan, the company intends to raise no more than 2.5 billion yuan through non-public offerings and invest in the industrialization project of high-efficiency new lithium-ion battery with an annual output of 2 billion AH, the industrialization project of high-efficiency new lithium-ion battery (phase II), and supplementary liquidity. Among them, the first two projects will add a total of 4 billion AH to the annual production capacity of lithium-ion batteries. The fund-raising plan was approved by the CSRC on March 2 this year.
On March 4, 2021, Azure Lithium Core announced that it plans to invest in the industrialization project of high-efficiency new lithium-ion battery in Huaian Qinghe Economic Development Zone, with a total investment of 5 billion yuan to build a new 4 billion AH cylindrical lithium battery industrialization project. The project is planned to be built in two phases, with an investment of 2.35 billion yuan in the first phase. The project will be implemented by the company or its holding subsidiary newly established Huaian Tianpeng Lithium Energy Co., Ltd.
In addition, in the latest announcement, Azure Lithium Core said that Tianpeng Power Huaian Plant will release new production capacity in 2022, which will help alleviate the company's operating state that supply exceeds demand, and provide a strong guarantee for the implementation of this order.
Vike Lithium noted that according to the Azure Lithium Core 2021 semi-annual report, the company's Huaian plant phase I project is expected to be put into production in the third quarter of 2022, after reaching production, the company's annual lithium battery production capacity will reach 1.3 billion; the construction of the second phase of the Huaian plant is also under evaluation. At the same time, the second phase of Zhangjiagang project has entered the stage of equipment installation and is expected to be gradually put into production in October.
The goal of Azure Lithium Core is to further increase production capacity, form more obvious scale advantages, give full play to the company's advantages in the field of high-rate batteries, expand and strengthen the company's lithium battery business, and accelerate the company to become a leading international supplier of lithium batteries for small power systems.
In terms of performance, according to the performance forecast, Azure Lithium Core is expected to achieve a net profit of 640 million yuan to 700 million yuan in 2021, an increase of 130.26 percent over the same period last year, an increase of 151.84 percent over the same period last year. The non-net profit was deducted from 570 million yuan to 630 million yuan, an increase of 208.27 percent 240.72 percent over the same period last year.
