The sudden COVID-19 has had a great impact on the entire lithium battery industry chain in China, and has had a great impact on enterprises in terms of procurement, production, delivery and so on.

However, compared with its domestic business, the export business of Chinese lithium battery enterprises is less affected and is currently recovering well.

A number of senior executives of lithium battery enterprises told Gaogong lithium battery that the company's export business was greatly affected in February, but overseas orders did not decline significantly. It is expected that the company's export business will increase significantly throughout the year.

Affected by the Spring Festival holiday and the closure of cities and roads across the country, lithium battery enterprises were greatly affected in the organization of production and product delivery in February, resulting in partial delays in the delivery of export orders including precursors, positive and negative electrodes, diaphragms, electrolytes, lithium batteries, etc., and a significant decline in output and shipments month on month.

However, the above-mentioned enterprises said that with the start-up of production and the recovery of logistics transportation, the output and delivery volume in March are expected to increase significantly, and the company's export business in the whole year will maintain an overall growth trend.

Overall, the impact of the epidemic on the export business of Chinese lithium battery enterprises is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

01 the short-term impact is obvious, and the order delivery in February was forced to be delayed

Many heads of lithium battery enterprises told Gaogong lithium battery that the company's export business had little impact in January, mainly in February, when the epidemic broke out. It is expected that it will gradually recover in March, with little impact throughout the year.

Due to the superposition of city and road closures in various provinces and cities and the Spring Festival holiday, the normal commencement plan of lithium battery enterprises after the Spring Festival in previous years was cancelled or postponed, and employees returning from other places had to be isolated for a long time, resulting in a low rate of resumption of work, which affected the normal production and operation of enterprises and failed to produce and deliver in time.

At the same time, the closure of roads and the suspension of major transportation and logistics also led to the failure of normal delivery of export goods of lithium battery enterprises in February, forcing them to postpone to March.

It is worth noting that with the gradual control of the epidemic and the help of the government's policies, the resumption rate of lithium battery enterprises rose sharply in March and gradually resumed normal production and operation. It is expected that the output and shipment will increase significantly month on month.

"The production and order delivery of the company in February are greatly affected. The undelivered products in February will be postponed to March, and the overall delivery cycle will be postponed, but the impact of the whole year is not significant."

Chen Xuan, general manager of Tianpeng power supplyFor Gaogong lithium battery, the company's current resumption rate has reached 80%, and the overall production and delivery have returned to normal. At present, the export business accounts for more than 60%, of which the business of high-end electric tools accounts for more than 80%, mainly for the European and American markets.

02 overseas orders did not decline, and market demand continued to grow

The export of lithium battery materials in China accounts for more than 70% of the global lithium battery materials, and lithium battery materials are mainly exported to Japan and South Korea.

Compared with the sharp decline in domestic business, the overseas orders of the above lithium battery material enterprises have not declined significantly, and the market demand is strong.

Industry insiders pointed out that the main reason is that in 2020, Japanese and Korean battery enterprises, including Samsung SDI, LG Chemical, ski and Panasonic, are significantly expanding production capacity and signing huge long-term orders with upstream raw material suppliers, thereby driving the growth of China's lithium battery material exports.

Gaogong lithium battery learned that the export business of enterprises including precursors, positive electrodes, diaphragms, electrolytes and so on was less affected, and it was generally optimistic about the export business of the whole year.

"The overseas market demand has not decreased, and the export impact of the company's precursor in January is not significant, mainly concentrated in February, with a month on month decline of about 40%, but it will recover in March, with an expected year-on-year increase of 40%-50%."

Pan Hua, deputy general manager of greenmead groupGaogong lithium battery said that in the short term, the company's export business will be affected to a certain extent, but the impact will be small throughout the year. The demand for overseas orders is full, and it is expected that the annual export of the company's precursor will increase by about 40%.

Pan Hua pointed out that the production of greenmead Jingmen Company was greatly affected by the epidemic, but at present, the Hubei provincial government is organizing enterprises to resume production. It is expected that large-scale production can be resumed after March 10, and the export volume of precursors will also increase significantly.

"In the first two months of this year, the production and sales volume, output value, export volume and other important indicators have increased steadily. At present, there are more than 1200 on-the-job employees, and the rework rate has reached more than 96%. In March, the trend is better, and the output is expected to exceed 3000 tons, and the annual output and output value are expected to achieve 100% growth."

Liu Xingguo, general manager of Zhongwei new energySaid that the company's overseas market orders were stable, with a total export volume of US $56million in the first two months.

Among them, in February, the company can achieve a production capacity of 2400 tons, creating an output value of 350million yuan, an increase of 42% year-on-year. The planned Zhongwei new energy China headquarters industrial base (phase III) project has been fully commenced and will be put into operation as scheduled.

Overall, affected by the epidemic, the resumption of work of lithium battery enterprises was generally delayed, and more than 80% of enterprises have resumed work after February 17.

However, affected by the arrival of employees, the supply of upstream supply chain and the poor logistics, the resumption rate of production lines is generally less than 50%. Some enterprises in the mainland are not affected by the return of employees, and the resumption rate is relatively high.

In terms of exports, driven by the expansion demand of battery enterprises in Japan and South Korea, the export of lithium battery raw materials in China is less affected, and it is expected that the shipment volume will continue to grow after March.

In terms of lithium batteries, the market demand of 3C digital, electric tools, electric bicycles and other fields has grown steadily. However, the epidemic of pneumonia in Japan, South Korea, the United States, Europe and other places has a trend of spread and outbreak, which may have an adverse impact on China's lithium battery exports.

Article source:High tech lithium power grid