(Original title: Huayou Cobalt will raise no more than 17.7 billion yuan to expand the production capacity of lithium battery materials again)
As one of the leading companies in the field of new energy lithium battery materials, Huayou Cobalt (603799) disclosed that it plans to increase its production capacity further.
The fixed increase fundraising does not exceed 17.7 billion yuan
On the evening of June 19, Huayou Cobalt announced that the company plans to raise a total of no more than 17.7 billion yuan (including issuance costs), and the net amount of funds raised after deducting issuance costs will be used for “Indonesia Huashan Nickel-Cobalt Company with an annual output of 120,000 tons. Nickel Metal Content Nickel Cobalt Hydroxide Wet Process Project”, “Guangxi Huayou Lithium Industry Company Annual Production of 50,000 tons of Battery Grade Lithium Salt Project” and “Supplementary Working Capital”.
Among them, the construction content of the nickel-cobalt hydroxide wet process project with an annual output of 120,000 tons of nickel metal in Huashan Nickel-Cobalt Company in Indonesia includes washing, chrome separation, high-pressure acid soaking wet process, sulfuric acid plant, limestone plant and tailings dam, etc. Process and supporting facilities, other facilities such as power supply, water supply, living area, etc. are provided by the industrial park where the project is located.
After completion, the project will be able to process about 10.4 million tons/year of dry ore of laterite nickel ore. The project outputs 326,000 tons/year of nickel-cobalt hydroxide intermediate products, equivalent to 123,000 tons/year of nickel metal and 15,700 tons/year of cobalt metal; another by-product of beneficiation is about 506,000 tons/year of chromium concentrate.
Huayou Cobalt said that the Indonesian island of Halmahera and its surrounding areas, where the project is constructed, is one of the regions with the most abundant laterite nickel ore resources in the world, and the local nickel ore supply is abundant. At the same time, the project partner Tsingshan Group has been deeply involved in the development of nickel resources in Indonesia for many years, and will provide strong experience and resource guarantee for the project. In addition, Indonesia has abundant coal resources and good quality, which can provide sufficient raw materials for the coal-fired power plants built in the project.
The project plans to adopt the industry-leading wet high pressure acid leaching smelting process. The Huayue Company’s nickel-cobalt hydroxide wet-process project with an annual output of 60,000 tons of nickel metal, which the company cooperates with Qingshan Group, has been successfully put into trial production. It adopts the same wet high-pressure acid leaching smelting process as this project, which will provide the Rich experience in construction and production.
In terms of another fundraising project, Guangxi Huayou Lithium Industry Co., Ltd. has an annual output of 50,000 tons of battery-grade lithium salt project. The construction content includes all the production systems of the sulfuric acid production process and its supporting production auxiliary facilities and living and office facilities. After completion, the processing scale of spodumene concentrate will reach 389,000 tons/year.
The project produces 27,724 tons/year of battery-grade lithium carbonate, 25,286 tons/year of battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate, and by-products Yuanming powder and lithium silicon powder.
Further expand the production capacity of lithium battery materials
Since its listing in 2015, Huayou Cobalt has successively invested in the construction of a number of new production capacity projects from the development of cobalt and nickel resources to the integrated industrial chain of lithium battery material manufacturing through capital market fundraising and self-raised funds.
At present, the company has built a number of smelting projects in Indonesia, including the nickel-cobalt hydroxide wet process project of Huayue Company with an annual output of 60,000 tons of nickel metal, and the high-nickel matte project of Huake Company with an annual output of 45,000 tons of nickel metal.
Huayou Cobalt said that with the successive completion of related investment projects, the company urgently needs a large amount of working capital to ensure the smooth production of investment projects and the smooth realization of economic benefits of investment projects in the next three years. As of March 31, 2022, the company’s asset-liability ratio was 64.84%, which was at a relatively high level; the current ratio was 1.33, and the quick ratio was 0.94, which was at a relatively low level. Optimizing the capital structure through equity financing will help reduce the company’s financial risks and improve the company’s ability to resist risks.
In addition, with the continuous explosive growth of the new energy vehicle industry, the rapid penetration of the energy storage industry, and the continuous deepening of the process of high nickelization of power batteries, the demand for nickel and lithium resources for lithium battery materials has grown rapidly.
Huayou Cobalt believes that, as a global leader in the new energy lithium battery material industry, it needs to seize the opportunity of rapid development in the downstream market, continue to make in-depth layouts in the field of nickel and lithium resources, expand the production capacity of lithium battery materials, and achieve closer cooperation with leading downstream enterprises. Combined with the supply chain of leading car companies and lithium battery companies, we will build an integrated leading company that covers the three core metal raw materials of nickel, cobalt and lithium horizontally, and vertically covers the entire industrial chain from resources to materials. This foreign investment is in line with the company’s development strategy, which is conducive to further strengthening the company’s resource development and integrated layout, and enhancing the company’s profitability and sustainable development capabilities.
Benefiting from the rapid development of new energy vehicles and energy storage industries, leading companies in the lithium battery industry such as CATL, BYD, Honeycomb Energy, China Innovation Aviation, LG Chem, Samsung SDI, SKI, and Panasonic have announced expansion of production capacity to cope with the growing market. need. According to the production capacity planning of major global lithium battery manufacturers, the overall production capacity of lithium batteries will reach 4,000GWh by 2025.
The market demand for lithium battery materials brought about by the rapid expansion of downstream customers’ production capacity has also challenged the supply capacity of upstream companies.
Huayou Cobalt said that although the company has formed an industrial pattern of integrated and coordinated development of the three business sectors of resources, non-ferrous metals and new energy, gradually built a safe and stable supply chain, and achieved leading production capacity in many fields, it is currently The scale of production capacity and supply capacity are still unable to fully meet the rapid growth of downstream customer demand. In order to seize market opportunities, it is necessary for the company to further expand the production capacity of lithium battery materials, to achieve closer integration with downstream leading enterprises, and to position the supply chain of leading car companies and lithium battery companies.