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interface news reporter | zhuang jian

china minmetals and the qinghai provincial state-owned assets supervision and administration commission will jointly invest in the establishment of china salt lake group, and the salt lake "national team" will officially debut. with chairman zeng yuqun denying it, the noisy cross-border acquisition of photovoltaics by catl (300750.sz) has temporarily come to an end.

two internationally renowned lithium battery companies have announced layoffs, and deep adjustments in the industry are underway. china will pilot power battery railway transportation, which is expected to change the situation where road transportation is dominated by one company.

china salt lake group officially debuts

china salt lake group will be jointly invested by china minmetals and qinghai provincial state-owned assets supervision and administration commission. china minmetals holds 53% of china salt lake group's shares. qinghai provincial state-owned assets supervision and administration commission and its subsidiary qinghai state-owned investment holding hold 18.73% and 28.27% respectively.

after the establishment of china salt lake group, it will also invest in the acquisition of salt lake shares held by qinghai state-owned assets. the specific method is to acquire 12.54% of salt lake shares held by qinghai state investment corporation and its concerted parties for 13.558 billion yuan. salt lake co., ltd. is headquartered in golmud, qinghai. its main business is potassium chloride and lithium carbonate. its annual production capacity of lithium carbonate is 40,000 tons, accounting for about 8% of the country's total.

china's lithium resource reserves are dominated by salt lake resources, which account for more than 80% of the country's total lithium resource reserves and are mainly distributed in qinghai, tibet and other places. the establishment of china salt lake group aims to accelerate the construction of a world-class salt lake industry base and create a world-class salt lake industry group.

the qinghai provincial government proposed in 2022 that it plans to introduce large central enterprises and integrate related enterprises to form china salt lake group. the china minmetals introduced this time is a central enterprise directly managed by the state-owned assets supervision and administration commission and is also a fortune 500 company. china minmetals has previously made plans in the field of salt lakes. its subsidiary company minmetals salt lake owns salt lake assets in qinghai province and has completed and put into operation a carbon dioxide treatment project with an annual production capacity of 10,000 tons.

according to xinhua news agency, china minmetals stated on the establishment of china salt lake group that it will be based on qinghai province’s unique salt lake resources, give full play to china minmetals’ advantages in industry, talent, technology, management, etc., and comprehensively improve resource comprehensiveness. improve the level of development and utilization, accelerate the pace of "going global", realize green, efficient and circular development of salt lake resources, and strengthen china's ability to guarantee potassium and lithium resources.

catl denies intention to acquire photovoltaic companies

the news that catl plans to acquire photovoltaic companies across borders has become a hot topic in the industry this month. on september 27, catl chairman zeng yuqun denied to jiemian news that the company had any acquisition considerations in this regard, putting an end to the matter for the time being.

yiyi new energy focuses on the n-type topcon technology track and has grown into a leading company six years after its establishment. the company launched its listing at the end of last year, but withdrew its ipo application in august this year.

some people in the industry believe that yitong new energy is likely to be acquired as a result. the announcement disclosed by yongfu shares (300712.sz), a shareholder of datong new energy, in mid-september also showed that liu yong, the actual controller of datong new energy, did have plans to sell the company. however, the information of the final acquirer was not disclosed in the announcement.

the photovoltaic industry, which is at the bottom of the cycle, is falling into a comprehensive loss, and there are not many leading companies with the ability to acquire and integrate.

the ability to build integrated solutions for photovoltaic and storage integration is regarded as the inherent logic of catl’s cross-border acquisition of photovoltaic companies. in the past three years, catl’s energy storage battery shipments have ranked first in the world.

denying the rumors of acquiring photovoltaic companies does not mean that catl has no intention to enter the photovoltaic industry through other means. in fact, catl has already made in-depth plans in the perovskite technology that it is optimistic about.

zeng yuqun revealed in 2022 that catl's perovskite photovoltaic cell research is progressing smoothly, and a pilot line is being built, and its research on perovskite technology continues to advance. in addition, the battery giant has previously participated in the financing of perovskite photovoltaic cell company gcl optoelectronics.

two well-known lithium battery companies announce layoffs

two internationally renowned lithium battery companies, northvolt and sk on, announced layoff plans in september.

as the lithium battery industry enters a period of adjustment, some companies have fallen into deep operating difficulties. even sk on, which ranks fourth in the global power battery market share, is no exception.

due to the disappointing sales of electric vehicles by downstream customers in europe and the united states, sk on revealed that it had entered crisis mode in july this year and announced a series of cost reduction measures, including limiting annual salary increases for executives. since spinning off operations from sk group in october 2021, sk on has suffered losses for 11 consecutive quarters.

as a representative of local european lithium battery companies, northvolt is also struggling to cope with the challenge of production bottlenecks. in 2023, the company suffered a loss of us$1.2 billion (approximately 8.7 billion yuan), an increase of 3.2 times compared with the previous year's loss.

northvolt's first gigafactory, skellefteå, is designed to have an annual battery production capacity of 16 gwh, but its current output is less than 1 gwh. northvolt decided to cut other expansion plans and turn its focus to increasing the production capacity of this gigafactory to complete the delivery of customer orders.

time will wait to test whether the announcement of the above-mentioned layoff plans can change the operating situation of these two lithium battery companies, or whether they will continue to slide into the abyss.

china will pilot power battery railway transportation

ten departments including the ministry of transport issued a document on september 19, clarifying that they will accelerate the railway transportation of new energy vehicle powered lithium batteries and carry out trial runs of powered lithium battery railways at qualified stations.

road transportation is currently the main mode of transportation of power batteries in china. in 2023, about 9.4 million tons of power batteries will be transported by road in china, accounting for more than 90%. however, road transportation has a small carrying capacity and is not suitable for long-distance transportation, and the cost is much higher than waterway and rail transportation.

in comparison, railway transportation has the advantages of large transport capacity and moderate cost. however, it is currently only applicable to consumer batteries in china and has not yet been opened to power batteries recognized as class 9 dangerous goods.

according to statistics from catl, railway transportation accounts for 20% of lithium battery transportation in europe and north america.

lin chuanqian, director of the freight supervision division of the transportation supervision department of the national railway administration, also revealed at the aforementioned meeting that in february this year, the national railway administration held a special promotion meeting on power battery railway transportation to clarify the relevant timetable and road map. in june this year, the prototype box used for power battery railway transportation has been rolled off the production line and tested.

yu xingyuan said that after the domestic power battery railway transportation trial operation is carried out, it is also expected to be promoted to china-europe trains, opening up new transportation methods for power battery exports. ten departments including the ministry of transport also proposed in the above-mentioned document that they will study and promote international railway transportation of power lithium batteries.

lithium batteries are one of the "three new items" exported by china. including power batteries, energy storage batteries and consumer batteries, in the first eight months of this year, domestic lithium battery exports were approximately us$38.3 billion (approximately 268.5 billion yuan).