In 2021, with the growth of global production and sales of new energy vehicles, the shortage of concentrate supply and the rising demand for reserve storage in the middle reaches, the prices of raw materials rose step by step from the bottom area at the beginning of the year, and the prices of lithium and cobalt soared sharply.
SMM data show that in China's spot market, the prices of metal lithium and cobalt increased by 175.26% and 77% respectively in 2021, while the spot prices of battery grade lithium carbonate and battery grade lithium hydroxide increased by 418.87% and 349.49% respectively in 2021. Connectivity datayes! Statistical analysis also shows that the prosperity of the lithium industry has recently reached a high of 253.75%.
Recently, the mining industry found that a number of lithium and cobalt related mining enterprises issued performance forecasts for 2021, which generally increased by more than 200%, and the highest increase was more than 600%.
Huayou cobalt industry: the expected net profit attributable to the parent company is 3.7-4.2 billion
According to the performance pre increase announcement released by Huayou cobalt on January 12, the net profit attributable to the parent company is expected to be RMB 3.7 billion-4.2 billion in 2021, with a year-on-year increase of 217.64% - 260.56%. The net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company after deducting non recurring profits and losses is expected to be between RMB 3.79 billion and 4.29 billion in 2021, with a year-on-year increase of 237.20% - 281.68%.
According to the third quarterly report of Huayou cobalt industry in 2021, during the reporting period, the company realized an operating revenue of 22.796 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 53.63%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 2.369 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 244.95%; The net profit attributable to the parent company after non deduction was 2.318 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 269%. Based on this calculation, the net profit of Huayou cobalt industry in the fourth quarter of 2021 is expected to be 1.331 billion yuan - 1.831 billion yuan, an increase of 47.9% - 103.4% month on month.
According to the announcement of the company, the pre increase in 2021 performance is mainly due to the outstanding results achieved in the implementation of the company's business strategy of high-end products and industrial integration. In 2021, the demand for new energy lithium battery materials continued to grow rapidly, the production and sales volume of the company's main products increased, the sales price of products continued to rise, and the profitability improved significantly.
Since last year, Huayou cobalt industry has made frequent actions at all ends of the lithium battery industry chain. Last November, Huayou cobalt industry and Xingfa Group signed a cooperation framework agreement. The two sides plan to cooperate around the whole industrial chain of new energy lithium battery materials to build 500000 T / a iron phosphate, 500000 T / a lithium iron phosphate and related supporting projects; On December 10 of the same year, the two sides signed the joint venture contract to further promote cooperation in the field of lithium battery materials.
On the evening of December 22 last year, Huayou cobalt industry announced again that it planned to acquire 100% equity of prospect lithium mine in Zimbabwe and related creditor's rights under the inter company loan agreement through its subsidiary Huayou international mining for us $422 million.
In addition, since the fourth quarter of 2021, Huayou cobalt industry has continuously signed strategic cooperation agreements with rongbai technology, dangsheng technology and Funeng technology, and is expected to provide at least 645000 tons of ternary precursors to the three companies from 2022 to 2025.
Recently, there was news that the joint venture between LG Chemical and Huayou cobalt industry in South Korea will produce nickel cobalt manganese aluminum cathode, and the factory will start construction in the near future. Nickel cobalt manganese aluminum cathode will improve the energy density of the battery. The nickel cobalt manganese aluminum cathode produced by LG Chemical and Huayou cobalt Industry joint venture will be used to produce the battery required for electric vehicles with a life of 500-600 kilometers.
It is worth noting that although the performance has increased significantly, the share price of Huayou cobalt industry has continued to decline recently. Based on the closing price of 107.2 yuan / share on January 14, the company's share price fell by more than 22% in the short term from 138.90 yuan / share on December 3, 2021.
Zangge Mining: deduction of non net profit increased by 600% year-on-year
Zangger mining released a performance forecast on January 12. It is estimated that the net profit attributable to the parent company in 2021 is expected to be about 1.4 billion yuan - 1.45 billion yuan, an increase of 511.65% to 533.5% year-on-year; The net profit after deduction is expected to be 1.34 billion yuan to 1.39 billion yuan, an increase of 589.81% to 615.55% year-on-year.
Zangge mining is a resource-based potassium chloride and lithium carbonate production enterprise based on the potassium salt resources of Chaerhan Salt Lake in Qinghai Province. The production and sales of potassium chloride and lithium carbonate are the core business of the company. According to the announcement, the reasons for the company's performance increase in 2021 include three aspects: first, in 2021, the sales price of potassium chloride of the company's subsidiary Golmud Zanger potassium fertilizer Co., Ltd. increased compared with the same period of last year, and the operating revenue and profit increased compared with the same period of last year; Second, in 2021, the lithium carbonate sales volume and sales price of the company's secondary subsidiary Golmud zangge Lithium Industry Co., Ltd. increased significantly compared with the same period of last year, and the operating revenue and profit increased compared with the same period of last year; Third, in 2021, the company's long-term equity investment recognized an investment income of 242 million yuan (including the reversal of expected credit loss of guarantee withdrawn by Tibet Julong Copper Co., Ltd.).
Middle and lower reaches of the industry: booming production and marketing
In addition to the enterprises that mainly produce raw materials of upstream mineral products such as Huayou cobalt industry and zangge mining, some middle and downstream listed companies related to lithium and cobalt also released performance forecasts for 2021.
Tianhua super clean: it is a national high-tech enterprise specializing in the R & D, production and sales of anti-static and dust-free products. The performance forecast released by the company shows that the net profit attributable to the parent company in 2021 is expected to be 890 million yuan - 940 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 211.20% - 228.68%, deducting non net profit of 840 million yuan - 890 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 265.76% - 287.53%. The company said that with the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry, the demand for lithium battery materials is relatively strong. The consolidated operation of the lithium battery material project of its subsidiary Yibin Tianyi lithium industry science and Innovation Co., Ltd. has made a great contribution to the annual performance and has become a new profit support point of the company. It is understood that the subsidiary Tianyi lithium industry phase I project with an annual output of 20000 tons of battery grade lithium hydroxide has been prosperous in production and sales due to the impact of the high outlook of the industry since it was completed and put into operation at the end of 2020.
German nano: it is a national high-tech enterprise committed to the R & D, production and sales of core materials for lithium-ion batteries. According to the performance forecast released by the company, the net profit attributable to the parent company in 2021 is expected to be 760 million yuan - 830 million yuan. The reason for the performance growth is that the rise in the price of upstream raw materials and the tight supply and demand in the lithium iron phosphate market have driven the rise in the price of the company's products. It is understood that this will be the best annual performance of German nano since its listing and turn losses into profits. According to public information, the quotation of German nano lithium iron phosphate was 114000 yuan / ton on January 13, 2022, while the quotation of the company was 38000 yuan / ton on January 5, 2021 a year ago, and the price increased by about three times in one year.
Yahua group: it is a professional provider of civil blasting equipment production and manufacturing, engineering blasting and mine integration services. It has two main businesses: lithium industry and civil blasting. The performance forecast released by it shows that the net profit attributable to the parent company in 2021 is expected to be RMB 920 million-1.05 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 184.09% - 224.23%, the net profit after deduction is RMB 892 million-1.022 billion, and the basic earnings per share is RMB 801-0.9142. According to the announcement, the main reason for the company's performance growth is that in 2021, the two main industries of civil explosion and lithium industry continued to make efforts, the civil explosion business developed steadily, and the demand of lithium industry continued to rise. The company seized the cycle of new energy industry, released production capacity and increased sales. The sales volume of lithium salt products increased significantly, the profit of lithium business increased significantly, and the overall profitability of the company improved significantly.
The establishment of lithium and cobalt futures markets is accelerating
According to China business news, global commodity exchanges are speeding up the listing of lithium and cobalt futures to cope with the sharp fluctuations in raw material prices caused by the rapid development of new energy vehicles.
SGX recently announced that it plans to launch lithium and cobalt futures contracts in the first half of 2022. William chin, head of commodities at the Singapore Exchange, said the launch of lithium and cobalt futures contracts would help market participants manage price risk for key raw materials for new energy vehicles.
China's futures market has also put the listing of lithium and cobalt futures on the agenda. Specifically, in December 2021, Zhu Lihong, general manager of Guangzhou futures exchange, spoiled the two-year listing plan of Guangzhou futures exchange at the 17th China (Shenzhen) International Futures conference, saying that it would promote the listing of secondary energy - power futures, as well as industrial silicon, polysilicon, lithium, rare earth, platinum, palladium and other metal varieties related to new energy. Wang Fenghai, general manager of Shanghai Futures Exchange, also said at the meeting that the Shanghai Futures Exchange would accelerate the construction of a green derivatives market system in line with the needs of domestic economic transformation, and actively study futures varieties such as cobalt, hydrogen energy, ammonia energy and electricity.
Throughout the global futures market, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the London Metal Exchange (LME) listed lithium futures contracts in May and July 2021, respectively. Up to now, the lithium contract delivered by Zhishang exchange in February 2022 has increased by 124.5% since its launch; The lithium contract delivered by the London Stock Exchange in February 2022 has increased by 132.2% since its listing.
Singapore Stock Exchange and Guangzhou futures exchange are expected to become the third exchange in the world to list lithium futures contracts.
