Since the beginning of this year, driven by the strong pull of the electric vehicle and power battery industry, the demand for battery aluminum foil has increased rapidly, and the overall production capacity of the industry has been tight, which has pushed the processing fee of lithium battery aluminum foil to continue to rise.

According to industry insiders, the average processing fee of battery aluminum foil in 2021 is about 15,000 yuan/ton, and the average processing fee in the first quarter of this year rose to about 16,500 yuan/ton, and the recent average price has further risen to about 17,000 yuan/ton.

The increase in processing fees has driven the performance of companies in the industry to rise, and most companies’ net profit has increased significantly, which is evidenced by the performance forecast of some listed companies in the 2022 interim report.

Among the above-mentioned companies that have released performance forecasts, except for Changlun’s performance forecast losses, other companies have pre-increased. Among them, Dingsheng New Materials, Wanshun New Materials, Dongguang Sunshine and Shenhuo Co., Ltd., during the reporting period, the net profit (net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies) increased by as much as 2-6 times year-on-year.

Most companies attribute the sharp increase in performance to: the continued strong downstream demand for battery aluminum foil, and the high price of products.

Among them, as a leading enterprise in the industry, Dingsheng New Materials also stated that during the reporting period, due to the continuous acceleration of the conversion of traditional production lines to battery aluminum foil, its production and sales of battery aluminum foil increased significantly year-on-year, which further consolidated its market share and helped its overall Performance went up.

With a year-on-year increase of more than 6 times in net profit, HEC said that the gross profit of its core products has increased. At the same time, it has sold some assets in other fields at the end of December 2021, which is conducive to its focus on advantageous industries.

Whether it is Dingsheng New Materials or Dongyang Sunshine, throwing out other production capacity or converting traditional production capacity to battery aluminum foil production side reflects the high prosperity of the battery aluminum foil track.

As for the pre-loss in performance, Changlu explained that it was caused by multiple factors. Among them, although some progress has been made in the new energy business, during the reporting period, the business as a whole was still in the process of product improvement, mass production ramp-up or market expansion. In the early stage, the demand in the superimposed downstream market changed rapidly, resulting in a lower proportion of its contribution to the current performance than expected.

Changlu Co., Ltd. said in August last year that its monthly production capacity of battery aluminum foil is about 350 to 400 tons, and its main customers include Guoxuan Hi-Tech and BYD. Its 30,000-ton power battery aluminum foil project announced in December last year is currently in progress.

On the whole, the leading battery aluminum foil companies have passed the certification of many battery companies, and have obtained long-term supply agreements for the latter. In terms of globalization, Dingsheng New Materials said that the company maintains good cooperative relations with large battery manufacturers at home and abroad, and closely follows the overseas business layout of mainstream battery factories. Relying on the company's existing overseas production bases, it will gradually increase battery aluminum foil in the future. export share. In terms of technology, according to Wanshun New Materials, its battery aluminum foil can be applied to the cathode current collector of the Kirin battery technology of the CATL era.

In terms of the market, data show that China's aluminum foil production will total 4.55 million tons in 2021 and 2.52 million tons in 2012, with an average annual compound growth rate of 6.8%. Among them, the proportion of battery aluminum foil in the overall aluminum foil production has increased from 1.7% in 2020 to 3.1% in 2021. Although the proportion is small, the output in 2021 will reach 140,000 tons, a year-on-year increase from 70,000 tons in 2020. Reaching 100%, it is a segmented variety of aluminum foil products with explosive growth in demand.

In the future, not only will the strong demand for lithium batteries continue to drive the production and sales of battery aluminum foil, but battery aluminum foil will also benefit from the mass production of sodium-ion batteries.

Both positive and negative current collectors of sodium-ion batteries use aluminum foil, and the amount is more than twice that of lithium batteries. At present, the Ningde era sodium-ion battery capacity planning has been implemented, and it is expected to achieve mass production in early 2023, superimposed on the sodium-ion battery capacity of other companies to follow up, then the market demand for battery aluminum foil will further benefit. The agency predicts that in 2025, the global demand for battery aluminum foil will reach about 740,000 tons, and the annual compound growth rate will reach 37%.

Based on the expectation of continued growth in demand, on the one hand, leading companies continue to expand production, and on the other hand, non-battery companies are also accelerating their entry.

Dingsheng New Material's battery aluminum foil production capacity is expected to be about 150,000 tons this year, and there is another "annual output of 800,000 tons of battery foil and supporting blanks project" expansion plan; Wanshun New Material's annual production capacity is about 40,000 tons, and there are about The production capacity of 130,000 tons of projects under construction; North China Aluminum's annual production capacity of 60,000 tons entered the trial production stage in May this year; Nanshan Aluminum's 21,000-ton power battery foil special production line was completed last year for trial production, and this year will focus on accelerating production capacity Release; Shenhuo's 55,000-ton capacity is going through the certification process, and another 60,000 tons is planned for expansion; Mingtai Aluminum plans to produce 100,000 tons of battery aluminum foil blanks.

Cut into battery aluminum foil from the non-battery field. On July 14, Tianshan Aluminum announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Jiangyin Xinren plans to build the first phase of a battery aluminum foil project with an annual output of 200,000 tons, and implement an annual output of 200,000 tons of battery aluminum foil. Technological transformation project. Its announced planned production capacity is already relatively large in the domestic market, which also proves that the track is quite attractive.

It is understood that the process requirements of battery aluminum foil are very high. Dingsheng New Materials recently disclosed, "The company has been making battery aluminum foil since 2010. The initial yield rate was 40%-50%. After spending a lot of research and development and capital, it slowly increased to the current 73%. Manufacturers of ordinary aluminum foil actually do not have the ability to switch to aluminum foil for batteries, and manufacturers who did not originally do aluminum foil have to cut into such a high-threshold field, and the actual results still need to be considered.”

In addition, the certification cycle of battery aluminum foil generally takes 2-3 years. Not only is the production capacity growth slow, but also it is difficult to improve the yield rate. In the first half of this year, the sales of electric vehicles exceeded expectations, and it is expected to continue to boom in the second half of the year. It will run through the whole year of 2022, and the processing fee of battery aluminum foil may remain high. In the long run, according to the production capacity planning of relevant enterprises, there may be overall production capacity process risks.