Financial Services Association, April 26 (Reporter Wu Chao) After becoming the “First Stock in Humanoid Robots” (09880.HK) partner, Tianqi shares (002009.SZ) were on the cusp, with an increase of 144% during the year (from 7.45 yuan/share on February 7 to 18.20 yuan/share on March 18). However, compared to the attention and enthusiasm of the secondary market, dragged down by losses in the lithium battery recycling business, the company's performance appeared tepid. Both revenue and net profit declined last year, and the first quarter of this year was only a meager profit.

According to the announcement issued by the company on the evening of the 25th, in 2023, the company achieved operating income of 3.616 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.89%; net profit loss attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 415 million yuan, and net profit attributable to the same period last year was 198 million yuan, which changed from profit to loss.

Among them, the lithium battery recycling business achieved sales revenue of 1.03 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 39.25%, and a gross margin of -9.90%.

Some analysts told the Financial Federation reporter that the lithium battery business of Tianqi Co., Ltd. is facing certain difficulties, mainly due to changes in the industry environment and increased market competition. On the one hand, the growth rate of the lithium battery industry is slowing, and downstream companies are removing inventory faster than expected, leading to a weakening in market demand; on the other hand, the number of entrants is gradually increasing, and competition in the industry is becoming more and more intense. At the same time, the continued decline in prices of major metals has further compressed the profit margin of the lithium battery recycling business.

According to data from Shanghai Nonferrous Metals Network, the prices of the main metals involved in the company's business continued to decline. By the end of 2023, the price of lithium carbonate dropped from 510,000 yuan/ton to 97,000 yuan/ton, a year-on-year decrease of 426%; the price of cobalt sulfate fell from 47,500 yuan/ton to 31.75 million yuan/ton, a year-round drop of 50%; the price of nickel sulfate dropped from 38,000 yuan/ton to 26,400 yuan/ton for the whole year.

Affected by this, in 2023, the sales volume and sales prices of the main products in the company's lithium battery recycling business all dropped sharply, which in turn led to a sharp drop in revenue in this sector until loss.

However, the person is optimistic about the future of the industry. “As the NEV market continues to expand and battery technology continues to advance, market demand for lithium battery recycling and reuse is expected to gradually recover. The technological accumulation and market layout of Tianqi Co., Ltd. in this field still has potential value.”

As another major business of Tianqi Co., Ltd., the intelligent equipment business performed brilliantly. Driven by global electrification trends, domestic and foreign NEV companies continued to rapidly expand production. In 2023, the company's intelligent equipment business achieved sales revenue of 1,636 billion yuan, an increase of 6.64% over the previous year, and a gross margin of 14.74%. Last year, the total number of new orders for the company's business reached 2.557 billion yuan, an increase of 39% over the previous year, showing that demand for intelligent automotive equipment at home and abroad continues to be strong.

Looking at the subregion, in 2023, Tianqi's automotive intelligent equipment business signed new domestic project orders of about 1.5 billion yuan, accounting for 75%; new overseas project orders were signed at 514 million yuan, an increase of 1056.45% over the previous year. Overseas orders accounted for 25%, and won many major projects in the European and American markets such as Ford, BMW, Volvo, and Vinfast.

It is worth noting that in 2023, Tianqi Co., Ltd. invested in expanding the industrial humanoid robot business and jointly established Wuxi Youqi Robotics Technology Co., Ltd. with Youbi Choice. It plans to build a complete humanoid robot machine suitable for industrial scenarios in the automotive sector, and gradually expand into other intelligent manufacturing fields in the future.

In addition, Tianqi Co., Ltd. released a report for the first quarter of 2024 stating that it achieved operating income of 650 million yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 13.24%; net profit of 2.348,200 million yuan, a net loss of 299 million yuan for the same period last year, which turned a loss into a profit. Large-scale commissioning of intelligent equipment orders led to a year-on-year increase in revenue and profit.

Among them, some of the major contracts undertaken by the company's intelligent equipment division in the fourth quarter of 2023 entered the large-scale commissioning and centralized entry implementation stage. Production capacity was saturated, driving the sector's revenue and net profit to increase sharply year-on-year in the first quarter. Currently, the intelligent equipment sector has orders of 1,263 million yuan, and signed new automotive intelligent equipment projects worth 312 million yuan in the first quarter of 2024, of which overseas projects account for 49%. According to the company, high-margin overseas projects and domestic renovation and supplementary projects have been released one after another, leading to a sharp increase in gross margin levels over the same period last year.

However, the company's lithium battery recycling business achieved revenue of 108 million yuan in the first quarter of 2024, accounting for 16.58% of revenue, a year-on-year decrease of 59.18%. The gross margin was -0.87%. The loss margin narrowed, but it was still unprofitable.