In the field of lithium battery post-processing equipment, head battery manufacturers favor Hangke technology.

 

The post-treatment equipment is mainly used in the post-treatment process in the battery production process, which mainly completes the activation, detection and quality judgment of the battery cell. Only through this process can the battery reach the serviceable state. As the post-treatment process directly determines the yield and final quality of batteries, battery manufacturers attach great importance to the performance of post-treatment equipment.

 

At present, Hangke technology has provided post-processing equipment for many international lithium battery manufacturers, such as Samsung of South Korea, LG of South Korea, Murata of Japan, etc. its equipment is mainly for the field of consumer batteries and power batteries.

 

However, in recent years, battery manufacturers have been eliminating backward production capacity, which has gradually affected the upstream battery production equipment manufacturers. In this case, how will hang Ke technology reduce the possible negative impact of downstream market changes? Maintain sustained high growth?

 

Advanced technology of post-treatment equipment

 

Rechargeable batteries include nickel metal hydride batteries and lithium batteries. Products developed and produced by Hangke technology are mainly lithium battery post-treatment systems. At present, Hangke technology has core technologies and capabilities in the R & D and production of post-processing system equipment such as charging and discharging motors and internal resistance testers.

 

Taking the charging and discharging motor as an example, in order to maximize the battery life and expand the storage capacity, the charging process must achieve high-precision control. At present, the voltage control accuracy of the charging and discharging motor of Hangke technology has reached two tenths of a million, and the current control accuracy has reached five tenths of a million, which is higher than that of the post-processing equipment manufacturers in the same industry.

 

In addition, China's lithium battery industry has developed for several years. At present, although there are many manufacturers, there are not many manufacturers using advanced automation equipment. Most small-scale lithium battery manufacturers still mainly produce manual or semi-automatic equipment and single automatic equipment.

 

In the past, with the advantage of labor force, the low-end products in China's lithium battery market accounted for a high proportion. However, with the increasingly fierce competition in the lithium battery market, the gross profit margin of medium and low-end products is gradually declining, and powerful manufacturers will aim to develop high-end products. Battery manufacturers have increased demand for automated and intelligent production equipment.

 

At present, the post-processing equipment of Hangke technology has been equipped with lithium battery automatic clamping technology; In addition, it has independently developed the centralized management technology of battery production data, which can provide full-automatic services for the post-processing system, while other domestic companies mostly outsource this technology to professional software companies. It can be seen that Hangke technology has unique advantages in both equipment production efficiency and data application efficiency.

 

It is worth mentioning that since the post-processing equipment is non standardized and needs to be customized according to the needs of manufacturers, compared with foreign manufacturers, the advantage of domestic manufacturers is that they can respond to market demand faster.

 

With the dual advantages of leading technology and rapid response to market demand, from 2016 to 2018, the operating revenue of Hang Ke electronics increased from 410 million yuan to 1.109 billion yuan, and the net profit increased from 92 million yuan to 286 million yuan. The development is rapid, and the national market share in 2018 reached 20%.

 

Power battery binding key customers

 

Hangke technology's post-processing equipment is mainly used in two major fields: consumer lithium batteries and power lithium batteries: consumer lithium batteries are mainly used in 3C products such as mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras and so on; Power lithium batteries are used in electric vehicles, electric tools and other products.

 

In the field of power batteries, since the state began to vigorously support new energy vehicles since 2013, the output of electric vehicles has continued to grow rapidly, driving the demand for lithium batteries.

 

According to the statistics of China Automobile Industry Association, the sales volume of domestic new energy vehicles in 2017 reached 777200, with a year-on-year increase of 53.3%; In 2018, the sales volume reached 1.256 million, with a year-on-year increase of 61.7%. With the overall desolation of the auto market, new energy vehicles have become a few growth highlights of the industry.

 

Based on this, since 2016, China has set off a wave of large-scale battery capacity expansion, and power battery investment has experienced a blowout growth. In 2018, China's power battery shipment was 65gwh, with a year-on-year increase of 46.07%, of which the installed capacity was 56.98gwh, with a year-on-year increase of 56.54%, basically matching the growth rate of domestic new energy vehicle sales.

 

However, the influx of a large number of investments has led to an excessive number of enterprises in the lithium battery industry and a further differentiation of the competition pattern: the supply of high-end capacity exceeds the demand, and the development of low-end capacity is excessive.

 

In view of the problems in the process of industry development, the national industrial policy has been adjusted to a certain extent: in 2019, the document "notice on further improving the financial subsidy policy for the promotion and application of new energy vehicles" clearly proposed that the state would tilt the subsidy funds to higher technology vehicle types.

 

The increase of subsidy threshold means that some new energy vehicles will be phased out by the market. The same is true of the power battery Market: some low-end battery manufacturers will encounter merger and integration, and the Matthew effect of the industry will be more significant.

 

Changes in the downstream market have formed a chain reaction in the industrial chain, and battery manufacturers and equipment manufacturers have also been affected. Hang Ke electronics has also failed to avoid: Zhongtai Auto's capital chain has problems, and it is unable to repay the battery manufacturer BIC power's 650million yuan debt, resulting in difficulties in the capital turnover of BIC power. At present, BIC power still owes hang Ke technology more than 30 million yuan in equipment payments.

 

Although changes in the downstream market have increased the risk of bad debts, in the long run, it is a general trend for new energy vehicles to replace traditional vehicles. In the market environment of constantly eliminating backward production capacity, no matter what performance of lithium batteries, they need to go through post-processing links, and the market demand for post-processing equipment will not change.

 

In addition, from 2016 to 2017, the proportion of Hangke technology power battery in revenue increased from 29.16% to 48.13%. Although it fell back to 45.57% in 2018, the overall fluctuation was small, and the revenue in this field increased by 27.25%.

 

In the first quarter of 2019, among the top ten enterprises with power battery installed capacity in China, eight enterprises were customers of Hangke technology. This shows that Hangke technology is deeply bound with domestic and foreign first-line manufacturers, and backward battery manufacturers have been eliminated, which has little impact on the operation of Hangke technology.

 

It can be seen that the fluctuation of the power battery industry in the future may affect the customer structure of Hangke technology to a certain extent, but will not have a significant adverse impact on its future sustainable operation ability.

 

Steady growth of consumer batteries

 

Compared with the power battery market with certain fluctuations, the growth of consumer battery field appears to be relatively stable.

 

From 2012 to 2014, smart machines entered a period of rapid penetration, and a $100 billion market was born. According to the data released by IDC, from 2014 to 2018, the global mobile phone shipments were 1.302 billion, 1.433 billion, 1.471 billion, 1.462 billion and 1.405 billion respectively. It can be seen that after years of rising sales of consumer electronic products, the future will show a steady growth trend.

 

However, the product attributes of consumer electronics determine its "fast iteration" characteristics. Consumers have new requirements for lithium battery capacity, shape and size. Therefore, demand is fed back to the upstream, and the demand for production equipment of lithium battery manufacturers will continue to grow.

 

In addition, the sales of traditional 3C products such as mobile phones and tablets are growing steadily; The market penetration of emerging intelligent products, such as unmanned aerial vehicles and wearable intelligent devices, is also gradually increasing. As a generation of equipment produces a generation of batteries, the explosion of emerging intelligent products will promote the demand for battery production equipment.

 

In the past three years, the sales revenue of Hangke technology from consumer lithium battery production equipment has increased from 265million to 491million, which confirms this development trend.

 

With the increasing demand of the domestic lithium battery market, many international consumer electronics battery manufacturers, such as Samsung of South Korea, LG of South Korea, Murata of Japan and other enterprises, have established factories in China, which provides an opportunity for Hangke technology to develop foreign brand customers. At present, the high-temperature and high-pressure technology independently developed by Hang Ke technology is adopted by many international first-line manufacturers. In the future, hang Ke technology will have a higher degree of cooperation and technology dependence with leading manufacturers.

 

Both power batteries and consumer batteries are in the incremental market, and the demand of battery manufacturers for post-treatment equipment will continue to rise. However, with the upgrading of products and the phasing out of backward production capacity, the Matthew effect of battery manufacturers will become more and more intense. In order to reduce the adverse effects of downstream market changes, Hangke technology needs to continue to firmly bind its head customers, so as to continue to maintain deterministic high growth driven by the two major fields of power batteries and consumer batteries.

Article source: First lithium power grid