① Although the project title includes the “eye-catching” statement of “carbon-based chip,” the project itself has limited relevance to carbon-based chips; ② The company once envisioned focusing on lithium battery cathode materials, but now it is facing a situation where the pause button is being pressed; ③ “The graphitization of special graphite and lithium battery anode materials will be the focus of the company in the next stage.” A company source revealed.
Financial News Agency, November 30 (Reporters Wang Xiaobang and Chen Kang) “A carbon-based chip graphite transformation project is underway.” A relevant person from Bank of China Cashmere (000982.SZ) told the Finance Association.
Bank of China Cashmere revealed earlier that its subsidiary, Henan Wanguan Industrial Co., Ltd. (“Wanguan Industrial”), plans to invest 20 million yuan to implement a “carbon-based chip graphite transformation and upgrading” project. The project has a planned construction period of 12 months. Construction will begin in June this year, and it will be completed and put into operation in June next year.
“'Carbon-based chip graphite transformation and upgrade' refers to the process process upgrade of existing graphitization furnaces to purify special graphite.” A person from the company introduced it.
Although the name of the project includes the “eye-catching” term “carbon-based chip,” the project itself has limited relevance to carbon-based chips.
A reporter from the Financial Association News Agency learned that Wanguan Industrial's original graphitization furnace can produce high-purity graphite below 200PPM. After the transformation and upgrade, it can produce high-purity graphite below 50PPM (graphite carbon content reaches 99.995% or more). This is where the name of the “Carbon-based Chip Graphite Transformation and Upgrading” project comes from.
(Photo by Bank of China Cashmere Company, Finance Association Reporter)
Currently, Bank of China Cashmere has two subsidiaries involved in special graphite business:
One of them is Wan Guan Industrial, which was acquired by Bank of China Cashmere at the end of 2022. Wan Guan Industrial specializes in the production, processing and sales of carbon and graphite products. It is an enterprise with integrated production capacity for calcination, grinding, mixing, molding, roasting, impregnation and graphitization treatment. It has obtained relevant approval for a special graphite product production project with an annual output of 30,000 tons, and currently has a production capacity of 15,000 tons of special graphite products per year.
(Wan Guan Industrial production line, provided by the interviewee)
The other company is Dujiangyan Juhengyi New Materials Co., Ltd., which also has special graphite business, and is engaged in special graphite roasting, special graphite graphitization, and graphitization processing of lithium battery anode materials.
“The graphitization of special graphite and lithium battery anode materials will be the company's focus in the next phase.” A source from the aforementioned company revealed.
But at the same time, another business that Zhongyin Cashmere once envisioned focusing on — lithium battery cathode materials — is now facing a situation where the pause button has been pressed.
At the beginning of 2021, Zhongyin Cashmere entered the lithium iron phosphate industry as a cathode material for lithium batteries through mergers and acquisitions. The holding subsidiary Sichuan Ligu New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. has an annual production capacity of 4,200 tons of lithium iron phosphate through leasing.
At the end of the same year, China Silver Cashmere announced that it will further increase its lithium iron phosphate business as a cathode material, and plans to invest 2 billion yuan to build an 80,000 tons/year lithium battery cathode material lithium iron phosphate project.
The project is located in Deyang-Aba Ecological Economic Industrial Park, and the project land payment has already been paid. “However, due to issues such as' integration 'of the land, there is currently no further investment.” The aforementioned company source said.
However, the “collapse” is that the market price of lithium iron phosphate has dropped by nearly 50% compared to the end of 2021, and there has been no further investment in the lithium iron phosphate project, causing the silver cashmere industry to “escape a disaster.”
As early as 2019, the Bank of China cashmere industry, which implemented bankruptcy and restructuring, tried to strategically lay out the entire new energy lithium battery industry chain after completing the divestment of heavy assets from cashmere textiles. From upstream lithium mines, to midstream lithium battery positive and negative electrode materials manufacturing, to downstream lithium battery applications, there are layout plans.
But now, as lithium ore prices fluctuate sharply and lithium iron phosphate faces industry overcapacity, the strategy of Bank of China Cashmere has been adjusted and reoriented.
“The direction of new materials and new energy is the long-term development direction set by the company. However, as far as the current business is concerned, it is more likely that the company will focus on the specialty graphite business next.” The aforementioned company source revealed, “It is not ruled out that further mergers and acquisitions will be carried out upstream and downstream of the special graphite industry chain.”