With the release of the third quarterly report of various companies, the energy storage industry continues to convey a chill. Huaxia Energy Network & Huaxia Energy Storage (public number hxcn3060) learned that the upstream and downstream enterprises of the energy storage industry chain have successively released their third-quarter financial reports, and the performance of many companies has declined, and Tianqi Lithium (SZ: 002466) and Ganfeng Lithium (SZ: 002460) have even fallen into losses.

Even CATL (SZ:300750), which has the most profitable profitability, pales in the first three quarters of this year compared to its performance two years ago. In the first three quarters of this year, CATL's total revenue decreased by 12.48% year-on-year, and net profit increased by 25.97% year-on-year.

Not to mention that 2022 is nostalgic - CATL recorded high growth of 152.1% and 92.9% in revenue and net profit respectively in that year. Looking back on 2022, the performance of the entire energy storage sector has risen, with an annual operating income of 1,038.6 billion yuan, an increase of 86.1% year-on-year; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 62.66 billion yuan, an increase of 151.1% year-on-year. At that time, upstream companies such as Tianqi Lithium and Ganfeng Lithium made a lot of money.

After two years, the good days of the energy storage industry's performance increasing by more than 100% are no more. Expectations and confidence are also clearly lacking, and the downward trend in performance seems to show no signs of stopping.

The upstream has the most losses, and the material link is expected to be the least optimistic

The overall performance of the energy storage industry has declined, and the price of lithium carbonate has to be "blamed". As a result, lithium salt producers have seen the most fluctuations in their performance.

According to the data, in the first three quarters of this year, Tianqi Lithium, the "lithium king", achieved revenue of 10.065 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 69.87%; The loss was 5.701 billion yuan, turning from a profit to a loss year-on-year - compared with a profit of 8.099 billion yuan in the same period last year. Since the fourth quarter of last year, this is the fourth consecutive quarter of losses for Tianqi Lithium.

The reason for the loss, Tianqi Lithium said was related to the significant year-on-year decline in the performance of its associate company SQM in the third quarter of 2024, which was the same reason for its actual disclosure of the loss in the first quarter of this year. The more important reason is the falling price of lithium salt.

This was accompanied by a decline in gross profit margin. According to the data, Tianqi Lithium's gross profit margin in the third quarter was 44.13%, down 48.22 percentage points year-on-year, falling to the lowest level in nearly four years.

Also affected by the low price of lithium salt, Ganfeng Lithium, another "lithium king", is not having a good time. In the first three quarters of this year, Ganfeng Lithium achieved revenue of about 13.925 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 45.78%; The loss was about 640 million yuan, a year-on-year profit turned into a loss.

In the first three quarters of this year, the trend of declining upstream performance also began to transmit to the middle and downstream.

In the downstream system integration link, the total operating income of the former "first share of household savings" Paineng Technology (SH: 688063) was 1.412 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 53.69%; The net profit was 37.3705 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 94.29%. As for the reasons for the decline, Peneng Technology said that on the one hand, the demand for household energy storage market has slowed down compared with the same period last year, and on the other hand, the inventory pressure has brought about an impairment impact.

SolaX Power (SH:688717), which just landed on the A-share market at the beginning of this year, is not optimistic, with revenue and net profit both declining. In the first three quarters, the revenue was about 2.407 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 39.93%; The net profit was about 160 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 84.24%. SolaX Energy is mainly engaged in photovoltaic storage inverters and energy storage batteries, which are generally favored by industrial investors before listing.

The better performance is Crestec (SZ: 002518) and Nandu Power (SZ: 300068), but also revenue and net profit declined. The former achieved revenue of about 2.912 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 28.43%; net profit was about 357 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 48.41%; The latter's revenue was about 7.862 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 28.72%; net profit was about 247 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 46.1%.

In the energy storage cell segment, EVE Lithium Energy (Rights Protection) (SZ: 300014) achieved revenue of 34 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.16%; net profit was 3.18 billion yuan, down 6.88% year-on-year. This is the first time in recent years that EVE's profits have declined.

Penghui Energy (SZ:300438) profit fell by more than 70%. In the first three quarters, the revenue was about 5.648 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.6%; The net profit was about 60.5 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 77.97%.

The

greatest performance pressure is still in the four main materials of the battery, such as the positive electrode, the negative electrode, the electrolyte, and the separator.

According to the financial report of Hunan Yuneng (SZ: 301358), a leading lithium iron phosphate cathode company, the operating income in the first three quarters was 15.879 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 53.74%; net profit was 491 million yuan, down 68.18% year-on-year. Ternary cathode leader Dangsheng Technology (SZ: 300073) achieved a total operating income of 5.525 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 55.95%; net profit was 464.3 million yuan, down 68.87% year-on-year.

The operating income of the negative electrode leader beiteri (BJ: 835185) was 10.269 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 49.44%; net profit was 671 million yuan, down 50.81% year-on-year; Shanshan Co., Ltd. (Rights Protection) (SH: 600884) achieved operating income of 13.284 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9.7%; net profit was 23.21 million yuan, down 98.1% year-on-year.

Tianci Materials, the leading electrolyte company, achieved a total operating income of 8.863 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 26.90%; net profit was 338 million yuan, down 80.69% year-on-year. The operating income of Polyfluoride (SZ: 002407) was 6.876 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 21.73%; The net profit was 24.9632 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 94.60%.

The operating income of the diaphragm leader Enjie Co., Ltd. (SZ: 002812) was about 7.465 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 17.91%; The net profit was about 443 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 79.41%.

Compared with the single-quarter data of various companies, the trend of declining performance of lithium battery material companies continues.

For example, beiteri achieved a total operating income of 3.231 billion yuan in the third quarter, a decrease of 7.92% from the previous quarter; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 179 million yuan, down 34.93% from the previous month; Hunan Yuneng achieved a total operating income of 5.098 billion yuan in the third quarter, down 18.59% from the previous quarter; net profit was 101 million yuan, down 56.01% from the previous month.

There are signs of improvement in the third quarter, but it is difficult to return to the peak moment of 2022

In the context of the general poor performance of the industry, there are also some signs of improvement in the performance of some enterprises.

According to the financial report data of Guoxuan Hi-Tech (SZ: 002074), in the first three quarters of this year, the company's revenue was 25.175 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.6%; net profit was 412 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.11%. Especially in the third quarter, the company achieved a net profit of 141 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 69.82%.

Behind the growth of performance is the increase in the market share, shipments and gross profit margin of Gotion Hi-Tech. According to the statistics of InfoLink Consulting, in the first half of this year, the company's energy storage cell shipments ranked seventh in the world, and the overall ranking has improved; The gross profit margin of the energy storage sector reached 23.87%, which was more than 10 percentage points higher than that of the power battery system.

Gotion Hi-Tech once said that the increase in the gross profit margin of the energy storage business was mainly due to the increase in the proportion of energy storage system shipments, overseas market shipments and effective cost control strategies.

It is worth mentioning that although the performance of the first three quarters declined, some companies outside the main material link achieved a certain degree of recovery in the third quarter.

For example, Ganfeng Lithium and Tianqi Lithium in the upstream lithium salt link.

Ganfeng Lithium achieved a net profit of 120 million yuan in the third quarter of this year, an increase of 137.32% from the previous quarter; Tianqi Lithium lost 496 million yuan in the same period, compared with a loss of 1.309 billion yuan in the second quarter, a quarter-on-quarter loss, and its profitability improved in a single quarter.

Tianqi Lithium said that the reason for the loss reduction is that the inventory of lithium concentrate is gradually digested on the one hand, and on the other hand, the cost of lithium concentrate is gradually approaching the latest purchase price.

In the third quarter, the operating income of Paineng Technology was 553 million yuan, an increase of 12.31% year-on-year and 16.71% quarter-on-quarter; The net profit was 17.4938 million yuan, a year-on-year turnaround, an increase of 10.19% month-on-month. The main reason is that with the further improvement of the inventory level of overseas downstream enterprises compared with the second quarter, the company's sales have improved significantly year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.

EVE's earnings performance in the third quarter has improved significantly. In the third quarter of this year, EVE achieved revenue of 11.492 billion yuan, an increase of 11.41% year-on-year and 35.33% month-on-month; net profit was 1.316 billion yuan, down 9.05% year-on-year and up 86.62% month-on-month.

A recent research report by Soochow Securities also said that EVE's shipments in the third quarter increased by 5% to 22GWh, the gross profit margin continued to increase, the profitability of energy storage increased significantly, and the performance in the third quarter was in line with market expectations.

Despite the positive signs in the third-quarter results, the industry generally believes that the downward trend in the industry is far from bottoming.

The price of lithium carbonate is a barometer of the energy storage industry, and the performance of enterprises is deeply bound to the price of lithium carbonate. At the moment when the price of lithium carbonate is the highest, it is also the highlight moment of the performance of most companies in the industry.

But at present, the price of lithium carbonate remains low, and it is difficult to return to the peak price of 60 yuan/ton in 2022. The industry generally believes that it is impossible for the energy storage industry to return to the era of 2022 when the masked ran wild and could make a lot of money.

When the upstream and downstream performance of energy storage can stabilize in the future depends on the clearing of production capacity and continuous cost reduction in exchange for more profit margins.