According to Cailian Press on April 20 (Reporter Liang Xiangcai), thanks to the release of production capacity and the rise in Copper prices, Tengyuan Cobalt Industry (301219.SZ) expects its net income to grow by more than 80% in 2024. At the same time, the company announced a planned investment of nearly 1 billion yuan in a Copper-Cobalt smelting plant project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On the 20th, Tengyuan Cobalt Industry announced that in 2024, the company achieved revenue of 6.542 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.02%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 0.685 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 81.24%; net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 0.671 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 83.39%.

In Q1 2025, the company achieved revenue of 1.461 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.59%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 0.123 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.27%.

The release of production capacity is one of the important factors for Tengyuan Cobalt Industry's performance growth in 2024. Among them, the gradual release of capacity from raised investment projects and the third phase project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has allowed the company to increase the production and sales revenue of Cobalt and Copper both domestically and internationally.

From the company's main Business data, the production volumes of Copper and Cobalt products in 2024 were 54,510.35 Metal tons and 20,508.34 Metal tons, with year-on-year increases of 9.8% and 31.50%, respectively; sales volumes were 54,923.75 Metal tons and 19,111.53 Metal tons, with year-on-year increases of 11.55% and 22.80%, respectively.

In terms of main product inventory, the inventory levels for Cobalt and Copper in 2024 were 2,199.07 Metal tons and 73.66 Metal tons, with year-on-year changes of 174.11% and -84.88%, respectively.

Regarding product prices, according to Choice data, in 2024, the average price of 1# Copper in the Yangtze Nonferrous Metals market was 74,973 yuan/ton, with a year-on-year increase of approximately 9.7%; the average price of 1# Cobalt in the Yangtze Nonferrous Metals market was approximately 0.2035 million yuan/ton, with a year-on-year decrease of 27.22%.

On the same day, Tengyuan Cobalt announced plans to invest in a new smelting plant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The company stated that in order to further ensure the raw material supply for domestic cobalt smelting enterprises after the company's expansion, and in line with the company's development plan for 2022-2026, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, Hong Kong Tengyuan, will jointly invest with Hong Kong Kenvista to establish a joint venture in Hong Kong. This joint venture will set up a project operation company in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to conduct copper mine project cooperation, with plans to acquire land in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to build a hydrometallurgical plant with an annual production of 0.03 million tons of copper and 2,000 tons of cobalt. The project investment amount is 0.98 billion yuan, with a construction period of 18 months.

Furthermore, the project investment budget is 0.98 billion yuan, with funding sourced from the self-raised funds of the Congo project company. In terms of equity distribution, Hong Kong Tengyuan holds 60% and Hong Kong Kenvista holds 40%. Expected project returns: after calculation, the after-tax financial internal rate of return on project investment, once the project is completed and reaches production, is estimated to be 35.01%.