Market Analysis of Power Battery

In the rapid development of the power battery industry, Chinese companies are gradually replacing overseas in the research and development and production of battery materials, lithium battery equipment, smart logistics and intelligent manufacturing systems, and have gradually shed their dependence on imports. At the "2018 First New Energy Vehicle and power battery (CIBF Shenzhen) International Exchange Conference" held recently, Shenzhen Hong International Logistics Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Today's International") business unit general manager Hong Hongjie accepted the battery Exclusive interview with China Net. You Hongjie said that the power lithium battery production process is divided into front-end equipment, mid-stage equipment, and rear-end equipment. The latter part of the equipment has now been 100% domestically produced.

Intelligent production logistics system will become the development trend of power battery industry

Power lithium battery production process can be divided into front, middle and back sections according to electrode fabrication, core assembly and core activation. Driven by the rapid development of the power battery industry in China, the technology innovation of the lithium power equipment industry has made great progress. Youhongjie said in an interview with Battery China Network: "At present, domestic technology and products are relatively weak. In the previous paragraph, there is still a certain gap with Japan and South Korea. Japan and South Korea still have advantages in this part of the special plane equipment; In the middle section, the main equipment of the special aircraft on the market is basically domestic equipment, with a share of about 70, and only some of the key equipment still needs to be imported; The latter part has reached 100 % localization. "Youhongjie further stated that when the international company took over BYD's first intelligent production logistics system today, there were still some devices that used Korean equipment, but from 2015 to now, the company's projects have basically No foreign equipment has been used again.

Youhongjie said frankly, in battery line automation and intelligence, domestic enterprises and Japan and South Korea still have a certain gap. He said that the level of automation of Japanese and Korean lithium enterprises is above 80, or even higher, and is basically based on intelligent production systems; The automation level of battery companies currently in the top tier should be above 50, but the automation level of the second and third echelons may be only 20-30. Youhongjie also pointed out that in the process of contact with domestic customers, he also clearly felt that more and more companies want to choose automated logistics production systems. He believes that building an automated, intelligent production and logistics system will become the inevitable trend of the development of the power battery industry.

It is reported that in 2014, the first set of automated detection and logistics storage systems was done in China today. In just five years, the International has developed into a leading company in the field of lithium automation equipment and intelligent logistics systems in China. According to Youhongjie, BYD found today's International in 2014, hoping that battery production lines would be fully automated, unmanned, and intelligent. At that time, Japanese and Korean battery production lines were still semi-automated. Youhongjie said that before this, today, the International has not been exposed to the situation of battery production lines in Japan and South Korea, and the level of lithium automation abroad is not very well understood. But according to their understanding, a modern battery production line is not enough to automate. They want to be an intelligent manufacturing system that combines automation, intelligence, and informatization.

Due to the binding of logistics and information flow, it began to promote the development of battery production lines from automation to intelligence. Mr Youhongjie says that logistics solves the problem of automation and unmanned, that is, less labor, while information flow solves the information tracking of the entire production process of the product. "In the process of battery production, each battery has a two-dimensional code on it. Each process will have a corresponding information record, and the data will also be passed to our information system. The core produced through the intelligent logistics system, no matter how many processes pass through the middle and what kind of information is generated, will be immediately presented in our system, "Youhongjie said. The combination of logistics and information flow can achieve real-time dynamic monitoring of products, which has an important role in product production and quality control. At the same time, it also solves the problem of product information backtracking and realizes real intelligent production. He also pointed out that more and more logistics automation is now being done throughout the factory. All links from raw materials to the core factory can be incorporated into the automated logistics system as long as it involves logistics, and the entire production process can be truly automated. Even information can be traced at any time.

Industry reshuffle to

With the rapid development and expansion of the market for new energy vehicles and lithium power in the past few years, China has now experienced structural overcapacity, which is characterized by insufficient production capacity at the high end and overcapacity at the low end. At the same time, with the continuous increase in the threshold of state subsidies for new energy vehicles, the policy requirements for energy density and safety of power batteries are also increasing, and the power battery market reshuffle will intensify. Youhongjie also pointed out that for some low-end production capacity companies, they are basically low-end when choosing equipment. These companies have gradually faded out of today's international customer base. Today's international customers are basically relatively advanced companies in the industry. "We have two main factors to consider when judging superior customers: the first is whether it has research institutes, core manufacturers, it is not only production, it should also have R&D capabilities. How to judge its R&D? I first want to see whether it has a research institute, how many R&D personnel, the transformation of technology results; Second, we will find out how many vehicle factories are equipped with the power core produced by customers. Simply speaking, it is the battery sales situation. We use these two factors to determine the customer's ability to continue to develop. Mr Youhongjie said the lifecycle of quality customers was generally longer and that the increase in new capacity for such customers was more stable and could continue to bring orders to the world today.

Compared with the upcoming reshuffle of new energy vehicles and power battery industry, the field of intelligent logistics systems should be said to have already been completed. You Hongjie said that the lithium battery intelligent logistics system is not a big circle, the products have to accept the test of mass production of customers. As long as several projects fail in the early stage, the industry will soon know that the reshuffle of the automated logistics field has already occurred and has been completed. . You Hongjie also revealed that at present, the international and another peer companies, the two companies have taken away more than 80% of the domestic automated logistics market. He also said that other installed equipment of lithium battery has become more and more concentrated in recent years.

Focus on the development of intelligent logistics system to help downstream enterprise development

The rapid development of the new energy automotive industry has accelerated the iterative updating of power battery technology. Most of the new production processes of battery manufacturers are improving, and non-standard automation has gradually increased. This has put forward higher requirements for lithium electric equipment and smart logistics companies. Youhongjie said that the logistics system design is different from a stand-alone machine. The number and type of logistics equipment are many. Each is a fixed product, each production line is customized, and no whole set is exactly the same. Customers place orders each year. Its production lines may be different. Today, according to the process flow developed by the customers, through in-depth exchanges with the customers, the process process is analyzed, and the corresponding process flow chart is made according to the characteristics of "information flow + process flow + material flow". Provide intelligent logistics and intelligent manufacturing systems with automation, informatization, and intelligent integration throughout the production line. According to Youhongjie, there are currently more than 400 employees in the world today, including more than 100 software projects. He said that software personnel are relatively large in the company. It is precisely because of the rapid increase in the number of projects undertaken by the international community in recent years that more researchers need to invest in these non-standard automation projects.

The healthy development of an industry is not only an industry's own problem, but also needs the coordinated development of the entire industrial chain. Under the booming tide of the new energy automotive industry, it is no exception as an intelligent logistics system service provider upstream of the power battery. Youhongjie said that the logistics production and dispatch system is the brain of the entire lithium production, monitoring the state of equipment, and directing cooperation and data exchange between various production equipment. As a upstream enterprise of lithium power, the company will continue to increase its research and development efforts. We will continue to provide customers with automated, fluidized, information-based and intelligent logistics systems and equipment, build a smart logistics production system for power batteries, help transform and upgrade battery companies, and promote the healthy development of the new energy automotive industry.

Author: Yanzhigang

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