Power lithium battery giant enters behind the aluminum foil

Recently, an enterprise search revealed that North China Aluminum New Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as North China New Materials) was established with a registered capital of 1.14 billion yuan. The participating companies include Hefei Guoxuan, Yibin Chendao, Yiwei Lithium Energy, and BYD. It is worth noting that Yibin Chendao is a new energy industry fund invested and established by CATL in April. It invested 1 billion yuan through a wholly-owned subsidiary and held 29.4% of its shares. This means that CATL has also indirectly participated in the investment in North China New Materials. The business scope of North China New Materials covers the production and sales of aluminum foil for high-performance power lithium batteries, and aluminum alloy strips for new energy power lithium battery shells. Its largest shareholder Huabei Aluminum was established in 1978 and is a large-scale comprehensive aluminum processing company controlled by my country Minmetals Corporation, my country Aluminum Corporation, and Hebei State-owned Assets Holding Operation Co., Ltd. In March, North China Aluminum's new energy battery foil project started, with a total investment of over 1.9 billion yuan and a designed annual output of 60,000 tons. In June last year, North China Aluminum and SKI passed the German automotive standard system VDA6.3 audit, which means that they have obtained the qualification to supply domestic aluminum foil to SKI European battery factories. In addition to fancy its production advantages and production qualifications, behind the four battery head companies entering the aluminum foil market, there is actually a huge demand for battery aluminum foil. Relevant data show that in 2020, my country's total output of aluminum foil (including packaging foil, air-conditioning foil, electronic foil, etc.) is 4.15 million tons, of which battery foil accounts for a relatively low proportion of only 1.69%. However, in terms of growth rate, the output of battery aluminum foil in 2020 will be 70,000 tons, which is the largest year-on-year increase of 16.7% among all types of aluminum foil. From the perspective of market demand, if the aluminum foil for 1GWh lithium-ion batteries is calculated at about 600-800 tons, only the Ningde era plans to produce more than 500GWh, which means that the use of aluminum foil will be 300-400,000 tons. Coupled with the 200GWh planned by AVIC lithium battery/honeycomb energy and the 100GWh planned by Guoxuan, there is undoubtedly a huge room for rising demand for aluminum foil. From the supply side, the current domestic companies producing aluminum foil for batteries include North China Aluminum, Nanshan Aluminum, Dingsheng New Materials, Dongyang Branch, Mingtai Aluminum, West China Aluminum, Zhongnan Aluminum, and Shanghai Alcoa. The new energy automobile industry is heating up. At the same time, lithium battery aluminum foil is technically difficult and has high added value. Therefore, its processing fees and gross profit margin are higher than traditional aluminum foil. The battery foil field has gradually become an important business expansion point for the aluminum foil industry. The performance of listed companies in Shao Aluminum has increased significantly. Dingsheng New Materials achieved revenue of 3.406 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 30.21%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 44.181 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.78%. Dingsheng New Materials stated that it is adjusting its product structure and actively deploying aluminum foil projects for batteries. According to its annual report, the sales volume of the company's battery foil products in 2020 will increase by 25.46%, and the gross profit margin will reach 26.68%, which is much higher than other categories. Mingtai Aluminum's net profit attributable to the parent in the first quarter of this year was 323 million yuan, an increase of 167.09% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to the parent in 2020 was 809 million yuan, an increase of 31.42% year-on-year, a record high, of which the net profit attributable to the parent in the fourth quarter reached 352 million yuan , An increase of 62.2% year-on-year. The main reason for the increase in net profit is that the launch of Mingtai Aluminum's new products further enhances its market competitiveness. High value-added products such as soft aluminum foil for lithium-ion batteries and aluminum for automobiles have optimized the company's product structure, and added value has increased steadily. From the upstream side, the upstream of the aluminum foil industry is the electrolytic aluminum industry. Benefiting from the booming performance of the electrolytic aluminum industry, the net profit of my country's aluminum industry in the first quarter of this year was 967 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30 times, setting a new single-quarter high since 2008.