As the “shovel seller” in the lithium battery industry, lithium battery equipment manufacturers are affected by the slowdown in the growth of downstream market demand, and their profits are under overall pressure. However, with the recent recovery of the industry’s operating rate and the resumption of expansion of leading battery factories, the industry expects that the lithium battery equipment segment has entered the bottoming stage and will usher in new development opportunities.
In the interview, the reporter learned that after nearly two years of fierce competition, the concentration of the lithium battery equipment industry is gradually increasing. Judging from the new orders of the leading lithium battery equipment factories since 2024, the overseas market has become a new growth point for performance. At the same time, with the accelerated industrialization of new technologies such as large cylindrical batteries and solid-state batteries, the demand for core equipment updates and iterations will continue to increase, and the industry structure is expected to be reconstructed.
Performance pressure reshuffle accelerated
“In the past year, our orders have almost fallen off a cliff, and the number of inquiries has also declined.” A lithium battery equipment manufacturer in central China told the Securities Times reporter that even for contracts that are being executed, the customer’s payment cycle is generally lengthening, and even defaults have occurred, and the company’s cash flow is facing great pressure.Being at the front end of the lithium battery industry chain, equipment manufacturers are generally hit to varying degrees in terms of performance under the background of declining demand growth and reduced capital expenditure in the industry, and even the industry’s leading listed companies are not immune.
In the first three quarters of 2024, Lead Intelligent’s revenue was 9.112 billion yuan, down 30.9% year-on-year, and its net profit was 608 million yuan, down 73.81% year-on-year; Hangke Technology’s revenue and net profit were 2.671 billion yuan and 376 million yuan, down 19.27% and 47.34% year-on-year, respectively; Yinghe Technology’s revenue fell 13.59% to 6.478 billion yuan, and its net profit fell 2.93% to 496 million yuan; Liyuanheng and Yuchen Intelligent fell into losses.
The reasons for the decline in performance of various companies are, on the one hand, due to the reduction in new projects of downstream customers, coupled with intensified industry competition, and the decline in gross profit margin; on the other hand, due to the extension of the delivery and acceptance cycle, the impairment losses of accounts receivable and inventory increased, which directly reduced the current profits.
Data shows that in the first three quarters of 2024, the comprehensive gross profit margin of Pioneer Intelligent was 36.42%, down 1.61 percentage points from the same period last year; the gross profit margin of Hangke Technology was 29.96%, down 9.46 percentage points year-on-year; the comprehensive gross profit margins of Haimuxing and Liyuanheng were 26.06% and 21.05%, respectively, down 5.21 and 6.75 percentage points year-on-year.
“Lithium-ion battery equipment has a long delivery cycle. The gross profit level in 2024 mostly reflects the profitability of orders obtained in 2023. 2023 is the time when the price pressure of lithium-ion battery equipment is the greatest. The downward trend of gross profit margin is expected.” Li Jialun, a mechanical researcher at the New Energy and Automobile Research Center of Guojin Securities, said, “The current market low-price competition has eased, and the subsequent industry gross profit margin is expected to stabilize.”
More positive signals are emerging. Lianying Laser previously stated in a research conducted by a reception organization that starting from September 2024, the operating rate of the leading battery factories has reached 80% to 90%, and there are even full production. There will be capital expenditure needs in the future. It is expected that the lithium battery industry will usher in growth from the second half of 2025 to the first half of 2026.
Recently, leading battery factories led by CATL and BYD announced the restart of expansion. According to incomplete statistics from Gasgoo, in the fourth quarter of 2024, power battery companies invested in a total of 33 new projects at home and abroad, with a total investment of more than 211.1 billion yuan and a planned power battery production capacity of more than 655GWh.It is worth mentioning that after nearly two years of fierce competition, the reshuffle of the lithium battery equipment industry is also accelerating, with few new entrants and market share gradually concentrating on leading companies.
“Lithium battery equipment has the characteristics of non-standard customization. Considering factors such as product quality consistency and process technology confidentiality, once customers form a habit of use, they will not easily change equipment suppliers. At present, mainstream equipment manufacturers have formed a deep binding relationship with leading battery manufacturers.” Li Jialun said that since the new round of capacity expansion is mainly initiated by leading battery manufacturers, subsequent leading equipment manufacturers are expected to seize more market share based on previous accumulation.The relevant person in charge of Haimuxing also said that this round of leading lithium battery manufacturers’ expansion bidding means that the industry is nearing the end of the clearance, and the domestic order boom is bottoming out. Equipment manufacturers with stronger supply capabilities are expected to benefit first.
“Going overseas” becomes a new breakthrough
In this foreseeable expansion cycle, the industry generally regards overseas markets as a new growth curve.In fact, the business structure of each lithium battery equipment listed company can be seen from the breakdown. The overseas market has begun to show signs of volume expansion in 2024.In the first half of 2024, the overseas business revenue of Pioneer Intelligent reached 1.095 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 159.56%, and the proportion of revenue increased to 19.03%; among the newly signed orders of Hangke Technology as of October 2024, the proportion of overseas customer orders exceeded 70%; as of the end of August 2024, the newly signed overseas orders of Haimuxing’s lithium battery business increased by more than 14 times year-on-year, and the overall overseas orders accounted for about 50% of the total orders; Manster achieved overseas revenue of 7.2524 million yuan in the first half of 2024, achieving a zero breakthrough.
According to public information, since the second half of 2024, many lithium battery equipment manufacturers have won large overseas orders, and most of their customers are car companies.In August 2024, Hangke Technology reached an agreement with Volkswagen Spain and Volkswagen Canada to supply lithium battery back-end equipment to Volkswagen Group’s battery factories in Spain and Canada. The total contract amount exceeded 45% of the company’s audited operating income in 2023; in the same month, Haimuxing received a notice of winning the bid from a leading overseas car company, and will supply power battery laser and automation-related equipment to the latter, with a winning bid amount of approximately 1.25 billion yuan; Yinghe Technology received a large order for mass production lines from the world’s top car companies, and will supply coating, rolling, and slitting equipment to its two major factories in Spain and Canada with a production capacity of 36GWh each, becoming the world’s only supplier of front-end equipment for the project.
