Investing 1.5 billion yuan in Meishan to build the first ＂zero-carbon factory for electrolyte＂ is a godsend material： downstream customers have come, and the layout of Sichuan can be ＂supplied nearby＂

Planner He Qiang Reporter Guo Rongcun Editor Liang Xiao

If the power battery is the heart of a new energy vehicle, then the electrolyte is the blood of the power battery. As an important base of western automobile industry, Sichuan can’t be "anemic" naturally.

Recently, Tianci Materials (SZ002709, stock price 46.6 yuan, market value 89.8 billion yuan), the leading electrolyte, turned its attention to Sichuan. Previously, Sichuan Tianci Meishan Base has started construction, and Tianci Materials will build its world’s first "Electrolyte Zero Carbon Factory" here, with an estimated total investment of 1.533 billion yuan.

According to the incomplete statistics of national business daily, the investment scale of lithium battery industry chain companies in Sichuan has exceeded 190 billion yuan in recent years. Why are related companies involved in "Sichuan" in succession? What are the considerations for the layout of Tianci Materials in Sichuan this time?

According to the plan of Tianci Materials, after the completion of the construction of Sichuan Tianci Meishan Base, the annual production capacity of 300,000 tons of electrolyte and 100,000 tons of lithium iron battery will be formed.

What does the capacity of 300,000 tons of electrolyte mean? According to the 2021 annual report of Tianci Materials, the company delivered more than 144,000 tons of electrolyte throughout the year. In other words, the planned production capacity of God-given Materials Meishan Base will reach more than twice the company’s electrolyte delivery in 2021. From this point of view, Meishan and even Sichuan will become an important strategic base for God-given materials in the western region.

So, why do God-given materials go to Sichuan? Moke, chief analyst of Lithium Research, said in an interview with national business daily reporter WeChat that there are two major considerations in industrial layout, one is "cost and market" and the other is "business environment".

From the cost point of view, the core raw material of electrolyte is lithium hexafluorophosphate, and the main raw material of lithium hexafluorophosphate is lithium carbonate. According to Southwest Securities Research Report, China’s lithium resources are mainly distributed in Sichuan, Qinghai, Xizang, Jiangxi and other places, among which Sichuan has 80% of China’s solid lithium resources reserves.

In August this year, Tianci Materials said in response to investors’ questions on the interactive platform of Shenzhen Stock Exchange: "At present, the company’s self-supply ratio of lithium hexafluorophosphate exceeds 95%." For the godsend materials that basically realize the self-sufficiency of lithium hexafluorophosphate and need to buy raw materials such as lithium carbonate, the layout of Sichuan, a province rich in lithium resources, is expected to further reduce the raw material cost of the company.

Recently, Han Heng, the director of Tianci Materials, said in a written interview that the layout of the company in Sichuan is both cost-driven and market-driven, of which market-driven is more important.

According to the data of China Commercial Industry Research Institute, in July 2022, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (SZ300750, share price of 429.50 yuan, market value of 1,048.2 billion yuan), BYD (SZ002594, share price of 273.96 yuan, market value of 797.5 billion yuan), Zhongchuang Singapore Airlines and Guoxuan Hi-Tech (SZ002074, share price of 397.5 billion yuan) ranked the top seven in the national power battery enterprises. Market value 58.9 billion yuan), Xinwangda (SZ300207, stock price 25.22 yuan, market value 43.3 billion yuan), Honeycomb Energy and Yiwei Lithium Energy (SZ300014, stock price 90.03 yuan, market value 170.9 billion yuan).

New energy automobile power battery

Image source: vision china VCG41N1387863598

Among them, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited invested in a power battery production project in Yibin, Yiwei Lithium Energy planned a power energy storage battery production base in Chengdu, Zhongchuang Singapore Airlines set up a manufacturing R&D base in Chengdu and a lithium battery zero-carbon industrial park in Dazhou, and Xinwangda set up a power battery and energy storage industry production base in Deyang.

Downstream battery manufacturers have laid out in Sichuan. As a supplier of electrolyte, one of the four key materials of power batteries, Tianci materials naturally have reasons to lay out in Sichuan. Han Heng said that the company intends to achieve "nearby supply" to key customers through the implementation of the Sichuan project, and at the same time be closer to the terminal market and reduce transportation costs.

Han Heng believes that thanks to Sichuan’s rich resource advantages, with the gradual maturity of Sichuan New Energy Automobile Industrial Park in the future, enterprises in the industrial park will have more obvious.(Supply customers nearby)Distance advantage and cost advantage.

On the whole, what is the significance of the layout of Sichuan to the godsend materials?

Han Heng said: "After the completion of the Sichuan project, it will further improve the layout of the company’s industrial chain, give full play to the industrial synergy advantages, meet the needs of the company’s future business development and market expansion, help to continuously strengthen the company’s advantages in raw material transportation costs, supply cycle and quality assurance, and continuously improve the market competitiveness, which is of great significance to promoting the company’s long-term stable development."

Different from the layout in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, Tianci Materials will build its first "Electrolyte Zero Carbon Factory" in Sichuan Tianci Meishan Base.

According to the White Paper on Global Operation of Electrolyte released by Tianci Materials in June this year, the planned total production capacity of the company has reached 2.039 million tons. Judging from the planned production capacity only, the production capacity of "300,000 tons of electrolyte" in Sichuan Tianci Meishan Base does not seem to be outstanding. But because of the "zero-carbon factory", Sichuan is of extraordinary strategic significance to God-given materials. Han Heng said that this is the first electrolyte zero-carbon factory built by Tianci Materials in the world, and the base will also assume the important responsibilities of the company’s zero-carbon demonstration factory benchmark and digital test center.

Why should the first zero-carbon factory be chosen in Sichuan? Because Sichuan is rich in green electricity resources.

According to Han Heng, "zero carbon" is actually a goal. Sichuan Tianci will take promoting energy conservation and expanding energy creation as the criteria, and through systematic technological innovation, continuously optimize and upgrade automation, energy consumption, per capita output, production costs and other aspects, and strive to reduce carbon emissions every year.

Among them, "realizing green electricity coverage in all factories" is a key step. "The factory is located in Meishan, Sichuan, with abundant water resources, which will become the main source of energy for the factory." Han Heng said.

Meishan City, Sichuan Province Image source: vision china VCG211289327926

In addition, how will the factory’s "zero carbon" goal be achieved? Han Heng said that in the "zero-carbon factory", Tianci Materials will carry out a new electrification transformation of the logistics chain to realize zero-carbon transshipment between raw material warehouses, processing factories and finished product warehouses. At the same time, a digital production monitoring system is set up to control the automatic feeding in batches and enlarge the details by global visual management, which improves the production efficiency and greatly reduces the process loss.

"(The factory will) fully use liquid feeding, increase the production capacity of a single kettle, use storage tanks for storage and insulation, improve the efficiency of heat utilization, and use solvents to seal the packaging barrels to achieve zero sewage discharge in production." Han Heng said.

Finally, in addition to the "zero carbon" in production, environmental protection and energy conservation outside production are equally important. Han Heng said that Sichuan Tianci will carry out all-round greening facilities construction, realize factory gardening in road greening, office greening and production warehouse greening, and at the same time support and encourage employees to commute green.

Therefore, the zero-carbon factory of Tianci Materials in Sichuan is not only an important effort for the company to achieve the goal of "double carbon", but also provides valuable experience for the construction of zero-carbon factories of other electrolyte enterprises in China.

Han Heng said: "Tianci Materials will take’ promoting energy conservation and expanding energy creation’ as the guideline, strive to build the latest generation of zero-carbon factories that are safe, green, efficient and intelligent, earnestly do a good job in reducing pollution and carbon in enterprises, strive to achieve the goals of’ peak carbon dioxide emissions’ and’ carbon neutrality’, and strive to tap the potential of green growth to promote a win-win situation in economic and environmental benefits."

Cover image source: God-given material official website screenshot

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