Will lithium power equipment lead a strong growth in low-end capacity be impacted?

In the field of lithium battery equipment, the situation of the strong Hengqiang began to appear, and the profitable space for SMEs was further squeezed.

Recently, the pioneer of domestic power battery equipment leading the smart release of the 2018 quarterly report. The quarterly report showed that the company's first quarter revenue was 657 million yuan, up 150.58% year-on-year; net profit was 173 million yuan, up 90.8% year-on-year. The company's earnings per share is 0.39 yuan.

It is worth noting that the average operating income growth rate of domestic special equipment industry is 15.35%; the average net profit growth rate of special equipment industry is 44.21%, and the growth rate of pilot intelligence far exceeds that of domestic counterparts.

For the growth of performance, the pilot intelligence mainly summarizes three reasons.

1. Revenue from the state's strong support for the new energy vehicle industry, power battery capacity expansion to accelerate the procurement of lithium battery equipment.

2. The company is actively exploring new customers.

3. New net profit of Zhuhai Titan New Power Electronics Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary.

At the same time as the equipment leader's performance has increased substantially, many domestic lithium battery equipment companies whose scale and technology can't keep up with the market rhythm are facing the risk of extended account period, new customer development difficulties, and sharp decline in net profit. The market is gradually concentrated in the head enterprises.

Leading peers in technical indicators are exported overseas

Occupying the high-end lithium battery market is the magic weapon for pilot intelligence. It is understood that the strategy of pilot intelligence is very different from other domestic lithium battery equipment companies. Prior to the listing, Pioneer Intelligence had deep cooperation with foreign lithium giants such as Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, LG, TDK, etc. After entering the domestic market, it established strategic partnerships with well-known domestic and foreign battery companies such as BYD, Ningde Times and Lishen. It is one of the few equipment manufacturers in China that can be included in the high-end lithium battery supply chain. Its products are widely favored by high-end customers at home and abroad.

The excellent technical indicators are the key to leading the industry to win the high-end market at home and abroad.

Taking the middle-end key equipment winder as an example, Pioneer Intelligence's 18650/21700 cylindrical lithium battery winder greatly improves the efficiency, and its maximum efficiency is expected to reach 40ppm, far exceeding the level of 28PPM of similar equipment in Japan and South Korea; Servo technology makes the product production specification switch more convenient. At the same time, the product also adopts more advanced rectification technology to make the winding alignment of the battery cell stable below 0.2mm, which is also 0.5mm higher than domestic and 0. The standard of 3mm is higher.

On the other hand, the pilot intelligent "EV multi-pole ear winder" can replace the imported equipment from South Korea and Japan, and its technology and performance have reached the world advanced level. Its line speed can reach more than 1500mm / s, winding efficiency can reach 7PPM. The whole machine is wound by a special controller with low tension, high speed and high precision control, so that the tension fluctuation is controlled within 6%. The alignment is controlled within ±0.3mm, and the alignment of similar products on the market is generally above ±0.5mm.

In these hard technical indicators, the pilot intelligence is at the forefront of the domestic market. With the continuous expansion of the market for new energy vehicles, power batteries urgently need to increase production capacity, reduce costs, improve production line efficiency, complete automatic tracking of product information, and complete the integration of large systems based on large-scale production. This also requires that the entire large system be organically connected in series to achieve effective control of all aspects of battery production, thus significantly increasing the demand for the entire line of automated manufacturing solutions.

Under such a background, leading enterprises with deep technical reserves and advanced industrial layout have obvious competitive advantages in providing complete line manufacturing solutions. Its highly automated lithium battery production line and complete line logistics system and other lithium battery line equipment, and supporting independent research and development of MES production execution system, become the best choice for power battery companies to create intelligent factories.

Strong differentiation of lithium battery equipment industry

In fact, after the rapid development of the past two years, the localization process of the lithium battery industry has entered the second half. At present, a number of equipment companies in the industry with a certain scale covering the main manufacturing links of lithium batteries are beginning to take shape. The concentration of lithium battery industry has also gradually increased, and industry consolidation has accelerated.

From the perspective of this industry situation, on the one hand, lithium battery equipment enterprises with core technological advantages are in a binding relationship with power battery faucets, and the supply mode of “AB corner” is gradually forming and solidifying; on the other hand, industrial mergers and acquisitions have already Intensive appearance, cluster effect is coming out. It can be seen that the competition situation of the entire lithium battery industry is moving from the original number of simple customers to the big strategic customers. The equipment enterprises are pursuing the scale effect and the industrial discourse right. Enterprises with core competitiveness are occupying the highlands.

Under the squeezing of giants, equipment manufacturers with insufficient strength have chosen a more aggressive sales strategy. The capacity of these equipment manufacturers is low-end duplication, and the homogenization is more serious. They often obtain customer sales through price wars and extended billing periods. They usually don't pay attention to quality improvement and brand building, but they will choose the way of malicious competition such as selling sales and lowering prices to ensure their rapid sales growth.

The equipment enterprises that go to the low-end customers usually belong to the workshop-style enterprises. Their physical fitness is not good, and the funds are insufficient. Some people even hold the mentality of taking the new energy vehicle industry and taking a go. Therefore, they usually purchase equipment from deferred payments to equipment companies. If the industry is booming, it may be possible to settle the equipment; if there is a downturn in the industry, they will not hesitate to owe money.

As the capacity expansion of power battery manufacturers gradually becomes more rational, the future growth space of small and medium-sized lithium battery equipment enterprises will further squeeze the giants.

Future development plans for lithium battery production equipment include domestic and foreign main lines. Globally, Panasonic (Panasonic), LG Chemical, Samsung SDI, CATL, BYD and other leading (potential) large-scale expansion projects, Chinese enterprises represented by pilot intelligence are expected Further establish partnerships with more leading manufacturers to achieve global supply; in the domestic market, the non-standard features of lithium battery equipment are obvious, the customer is very sticky, and the combination of battery faucet and production equipment leader is becoming more and more obvious. Equipment industry leaders and battery companies will go hand in hand.

At present, Pioneer Intelligence, Keheng Shares, Wintech and other high-quality enterprises have been the first to cooperate with high-quality battery manufacturers. In the future, the lithium battery equipment industry is expected to further differentiate. On the one hand, different customer resources lead to different market space for different equipment manufacturers; On the other hand, the capital pressure of big customers and small customers is different from bottom to top, and the bargaining power of small enterprises is weak, which may fall on the road of capital chain break at any time.

Before the tide of industry reshuffle integration, small and medium-sized equipment companies are weak, and if they want to survive, the equipment companies should conduct in-depth and meticulous research on potential cooperative customers in the current industry, and conduct detailed classification to determine a reasonable payment method. . Usually, the risk of accounts receivable of second- and third-tier customers is often large. If you can remove a group of second- and third-tier customers one after another, and ask for cash and not for sales, you may be able to continue for a while.

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