The development trend of electric equipment of construction machinery
On December 3, 2021, the Ministry of industry and information technology issued the "14th five year plan" for industrial green development, which actively responded to China's carbon peak action plan, with clear objectives and tasks, and guided the industrial field to carry out green and low-carbon transformation.
In the construction machinery industry subordinate to the industrial field, the increase in the proportion of motorized construction machinery equipment is an important measure to achieve carbon peak, such as electric loaders, electric excavators, electric ore cards, electric forklifts, etc. many mainstream enterprises have begun to layout motorized equipment. However, according to the data released by Ningde times, as of November 2021, the national commercial business fields, including heavy truck, forklift, construction machinery, port logistics and other industries, have a total battery shipment of about 30gwh, of which the construction machinery industry is less than 1GWh. Therefore, the electric equipment of construction machinery still has considerable development.
Preliminary determination of competition pattern of lithium battery enterprises
In the wave of electric vehicles replacing traditional fuel vehicles, the battery cost accounts for 40% ~ 50% of the total cost of electric vehicles. Among them, lithium battery is the mainstream technical route, and lithium has become the core material in the battery. Therefore, lithium resources are greatly sought after in the capital market, and the price soared in 2021.
At present, power battery enterprises including lithium battery, NiMH battery and large cylindrical battery include Ningde times, BYD, LG chemistry, GuoXuan high tech, AVIC lithium battery, Tafel, xinwanda, honeycomb energy, Yiwei lithium energy, Funeng technology, Jiewei power, etc. Among them, Ningde era stands out, with a market share of 48.06% in 2020; BYD ranks second, with a market share of about 10.16% in 2020; LG Chemical ranks third, with a market share of 10.16% in 2020.
Development of lithium battery and solid state energy storage technology
In addition to the current competition in the field of lithium electronic batteries with liquid electrolyte as the medium, the new generation of power batteries represented by solid-state power batteries will be an important field of competition in the future. Especially in the energy storage field, according to the 2021 interim report, the energy storage in Ningde era increased by 727% year-on-year, which is an obvious market signal. Because the application scenarios of electrochemical energy storage represented by lithium batteries are relatively limited. First, lithium batteries can only store energy for a short time; Second, lithium batteries are only suitable for working in areas with mild climate conditions, and their operation will be limited if the temperature is too low. Therefore, lithium batteries are more suitable for short-term energy storage in specific regions and seasons.
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How to break through the energy storage limit? At present, hydrogen energy storage technology is the most concerned. In the near future, hydrogen energy storage can be used as a supplement. Because hydrogen energy storage is very suitable for long-term and cross seasonal energy storage, the industry is generally optimistic about the application prospect of hydrogen energy storage. However, the technical route of hydrogen storage is still controversial. The current hydrogen storage technology includes high-pressure gaseous hydrogen storage, low-temperature liquid hydrogen storage, solid material hydrogen storage, etc. According to statistics, at present, more than 1 / 3 of the central enterprises are laying out the whole hydrogen energy industry chain, such as hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, hydrogenation and hydrogen utilization.
White hot competition for lithium resources
Although hydrogen energy storage technology is promising, it still needs time to optimize the technical route. Therefore, at present, the most fierce competition is in the field of lithium batteries, including the competition of lithium mines, an important means of production of lithium batteries. Because ensuring the supply of lithium resources is an important support for the further globalization of China's power battery industry chain.
However, the distribution of global lithium resources is very uneven. 92% of global lithium resources are distributed outside China. According to the latest statistics of the U.S. Geological Survey, the global lithium resources are mainly concentrated in Chile and Australia, accounting for 43.8% and 22% of the total resources respectively. South America and Australia together account for 80% of the global lithium resources, while China accounts for only 7%. Therefore, in the global lithium battery industry chain, the upstream lithium resources are the weakest link in China.
Therefore, it is an inevitable choice for Chinese enterprises to go abroad. Since about 2015, many Chinese enterprises have gone to Australia, America, Africa, Europe and other regions to look for and buy minerals. The two leading lithium resources are Ganfeng lithium industry and Tianqi lithium industry. In terms of overseas lithium resource layout, Ganfeng lithium industry is the largest. At present, it occupies about 29 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent in the upstream, and the production capacity is concentrated overseas. Tianqi lithium industry occupies 16 million tons of lithium resources. At the same time, in order to control the supply of lithium resources in the future, Ningde era, which is in the middle of the industrial chain, chose the way of investment in the industrial chain layout of lithium resources, and successively invested in four lithium mines, namely Tianyi lithium, Neo lithium in Canada, North American lithium and Pilbara in Australia.
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It is worth mentioning and paying attention to the competition between the two Chinese enterprises overseas against Canada's Millennium lithium industry for four months. One is Ningde times, a midstream power battery manufacturer, and the other is Ganfeng lithium, an upstream lithium resource plant. Since July 2021, Ganfeng lithium announced that it had reached a complete acquisition agreement with Millennium lithium for C $353 million. But then Ningde times offered an offer of C $377 million to intercept the acquisition. On November 1, Millennium lithium again announced that it had received an offer from Canada Americas lithium for a total consideration of about US $400 million. Ganfeng lithium indirectly holds 12.51% of the equity of American lithium, and has also dispatched a director to American lithium. Finally, on November 17, Ningde times paid a liquidated damages of US $20 million to the American lithium industry.
It can be seen that in the initial stage of electrification of construction machinery and equipment, the middle and upper reaches of lithium battery industry have begun to actively layout and compete for resources.
Rationalization of competition in electric equipment industry of construction machinery
A healthy development of industrial ecology must be the cooperation between the long board and the long board. In the building block cooperation of strong cooperation, it not only continuously optimizes its own long board, but also forms a stronger industrial influence and control through cooperation. At present, the construction machinery industry is also in the situation of fierce competition, and many main engine manufacturers and agents have also killed red eyes; The fierce price war has led to a sharp decline in the profitability of the whole industry.
Electric equipment is one of the important means for the construction machinery industry to achieve carbon peak. It can also be regarded as a differentiated industry product, which has attracted the layout and fierce competition of the main engine manufacturers in the industry. As a "veteran" in the industry, the author sincerely appeals that enterprises can be more rational from the beginning and let the butcher knife of "price war" be used on electric equipment later. As Mr. Wang Yuquan mentioned in the science and technology special training camp: a perfect industrial ecology is multi-party cooperation between upstream and downstream. Each link is very important. Both upstream and downstream need to support each other and eat meat in order to realize the sustainable development of the business form.
