What risks exist in the development of power cell in lithium electric industry

As the central link of the lithium battery profession, the power battery has always been the hardest-hit area where accounts receivable and accounts payable are delayed. If the power battery backbone enterprise fails due to the collapse of the capital chain, it will constitute an incalculable loss to the entire profession. In 2014, more than 30 lithium-ion battery companies, including Haiba, Mingyang, Hanlinda, Shenneng, and Jiangsu Litian, went bankrupt. Many of them were related to the collapse of the capital chain.

At that time, the number of accounts receivable of some power battery companies was hardly the same as in 2014. Since the power cell receivables come from companies, delays in delivery are largely influenced by policy(there is no effective solution at the moment). So how does the power battery enterprise drop the capital chain risk brought about by accounts receivable? It is worth thinking about the entire power battery career.

"At that time, power battery professional lending sales had constituted inertia and could not be eradicated in a short period of time. As domestic power cell capacity is now far beyond the market demand, power battery companies and new energy car prices and returns negotiations, often in a weak position. If you can not make concessions on the repayment cycle, adding inventory pressure does not say that it may also lose a large number of customers, which is not worth the loss. "The person in charge of a power battery company has no choice but to say.

Since it can not be eradicated, how should power battery companies reduce the risk of accounts receivable? First of all, for power battery companies, the choice of high-end route is particularly important. After all, domestic power batteries have the problem of "low-end excess, high-end production capacity is seriously insufficient", if companies can make a contribution to high-end power batteries, then in the negotiations with new energy car companies will also find some leverage.

Nowadays, because the amount of subsidies for new energy vehicles is directly linked to the energy density of power cells, car companies want more government subsidies and tend to choose power batteries with higher energy density. "Many companies now advertise that their battery energy density has exceeded 120 Wh / kg, but there are very few things that can be done. Therefore, although there are many domestic power battery companies, there are not many companies that can really choose new energy car companies. " The head of the said Institute said so.

Secondly, we choose new energy car companies with a certain strength to achieve strategic cooperation. In the past 2016, this trend has now begun to appear, such as the Ningde era and Dongfeng Automobile, FAW Passenger Cars and Chunlan New Energy, Beiqi and Guoxuan Gaoke, Yinlong New Energy and China Railway, Boston Battery and Local Boat, Tianjin Shares and Jiangte Electric Vehicles, etc.. Strategic collaboration has been carried out to varying degrees.

Although in the above cases, many of the two sides of the collaboration are still only at the framework agreement level, but it is undeniable that in the promotion of the development of new energy vehicles, the car company Hedongli battery companies have formed a consensus. For power battery companies, this kind of strategic collaboration is relatively stable, and it has stability and continuity. With stable marketing channels, power battery companies can effectively reduce inventory pressure and focus more on battery technology and quality improvement.

Third, reasonably ensure the rhythm of expansion, to protect their own cash flow. At that time, many power battery companies invested a lot of money to expand their production capacity, resulting in inventory difficult to digest in the short term. As BYD disclosed in its annual report, as of the end of 2016, the company's inventory amounted to 17.378 billion Yuan, accounting for 11.98 % of total assets. For leading companies such as BYD, such inventory amounts are acceptable, but what about other battery companies?

Some battery companies in order to clean up excess production capacity, the realization of capital recovery, so as to take the form of loan sales, inventory batteries to carry out a large number of sales. However, due to the impact of the subsidy policy, the time for car companies to receive subsidies will be delayed for power battery companies, which will lead to the continuous addition of the receivable balance of battery companies and bring greater pressure on the liquidity of battery companies.

Industry experts believe that to grasp the flow of capital and reduce the risk of return, we can start from the following two aspects: First, we must control the rhythm of expansion, do not feel that there is a large profit space to relax the expansion, because the accounts do not necessarily receive back, but gorgeous data; Second, we must make a good investment and financing plan to ensure the continuous development of the capital chain before we can continue to operate.

In the end, the high level of power cell receivables is indeed closely related to the new energy car company subsidy cycle. The "hematopoietic" function of domestic new energy vehicles is insufficient, and many companies are relying on government subsidies to support them. By 2020, subsidies will completely withdraw from the stage of new energy vehicles. Some people predict that more than 90 % of new energy car companies will fail. At that time, what will new energy car companies use to buy batteries from power battery manufacturers? And how do power cells recover the receivables owed by car companies? It's worth thinking about.

As Cengyuqun, the founder of the Ningde era, said, "When we are still sleeping on the hotbed of policy, our competitors are facing the desperate progress of life and death. The gap between one advance and one retreat can be imagined." "When a typhoon comes, pigs fly. But are pigs flying? What happens to pigs after a typhoon? Although these words appeared in the internal group e-mail written by Cengyuqun, they apply to the entire new energy car career.

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