What is the company's intention to make such a major transformation? How will the company develop the industrial chain of new energy materials in the future? Just a few days ago, Rong Jihua, chairman of Dow Technology, made a micro-interview with Securities Times E Company, describing the company's transformation focus and development strategy to investors.
Dispel doubts about the fluctuation of performance in a quarterly report
In late April, the company disclosed the 20 18 annual report and the 20 19 quarterly report respectively. In 20 18, the company realized a total operating income of about 3.5 billion yuan, up 109% year-on-year. The net profit of returning to the mother was about 220 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44.7%. In the first quarter of 20 19, the company's revenue increased by 3.49% to 769 million yuan, but its net profit was 84.63 million yuan. This loss also triggered the stock price fluctuation in the secondary market to some extent.
In a quarterly report, Dow Technology announced that the price of cobalt products fell rapidly during the reporting period, resulting in a decrease in the net realizable value of the company's inventory. Therefore, the company plans to make provision for inventory depreciation for the existing raw ore, cobalt salt and ternary precursor products on the books, totaling about 654.38+75 billion yuan.
Rong Jihua further explained that the main reason for this withdrawal was the rapid decline in cobalt prices in the first quarter of this year, with a drop of more than 20%. The company made an inventory of the existing inventory, and fully accrued depreciation based on the principle of financial prudence, which fully reflected the impact of the decline in the price of cobalt products on the company's books and finances during the reporting period.
"In fact, after entering April, the price of cobalt has rebounded continuously and has rebounded by 8%-9% at present. As for the impact on the company's business, I think the cobalt materials business still maintains a healthy development momentum. According to the existing technology, cobalt material will still be an irreplaceable and indispensable key structural material in new energy batteries; In addition, there is still huge room for upgrading the production and processing technology of cobalt materials. " Rong Jihua said.
Rong Jihua also said that if we want to pay attention to cobalt, we have to mention Congo (Gold), the country with the largest supply of cobalt ore, which is also the location of an important project of Gana Energy Company under Dow Technology. "We have just returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, and conducted in-depth field investigation and research on the current situation of cobalt resources development in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We will judge the situation, seize the opportunity, focus on the long-term, and more actively improve and promote the layout of the cobalt industrial chain. "
Localization of key materials for hydrogen fuel cells
Recently, the state has made some adjustments to the new energy subsidy policy, and it has tilted towards hydrogen fuel cells for the first time. Rong Jihua, who has long been concerned about the new energy industry, decisively smelled the opportunity. On March 18, Dow Technology announced that it plans to establish Dow spruce with Reshaping Technology and Ma Dongsheng * * * to develop and sell materials such as membrane electrode (MEA) for hydrogen fuel cells, in which Dow Technology holds a controlling position.
According to the announcement, from an international perspective, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have entered the market introduction stage from the technology development stage. However, there are still some problems in China's hydrogen fuel cell industry, such as insufficient independent research and development of core technologies and lack of coordination between infrastructure and industrial chain. In particular, the core materials such as MEA still depend on imports, which seriously restricts the sustainable development of China's hydrogen fuel cell industry.
The purpose of this cooperation is to actively integrate talents and technologies in R&D and manufacturing of MEA, the core material of hydrogen fuel cell, and to set up an international hydrogen fuel cell core technical team, so that the company can carry out R&D and production of core materials and products of hydrogen fuel cell from a high starting point and realize the localization of key links such as MEA.
Reportedly, one of the partners, Reshaping Technology, is an important fuel cell power system company in China and a member of the Hydrogen Council of the Global Hydrogen Energy Council. Its main business includes R&D and sales of fuel cell systems and key components, and provides engineering services related to fuel cell vehicle power system. Reshaping technology is the leading enterprise of fuel cell system integration in China. The R&D team owns the SAIC gene and has accumulated many years of experience in the field of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. At present, the market share of remodeling technology fuel cell system has reached 50%, and the total mileage of the whole vehicle has approached 6 million kilometers.
Another partner, Ma Dongsheng, is the core founder of Nantong Baiying Energy and Guo Hong Hydrogen Energy. He has rich experience in resource integration and management in the field of hydrogen fuel cells, and is also one of the core promoters of the fuel cell industry in China. Guo Hong Hydrogen Energy is a well-known reactor manufacturer in China, and the share of 20 18 in the domestic reactor market is about 70%.
Rong Jihua said that the advantages of the three parties are just complementary. The advantage of reshaping science and technology is system, the advantage of Ma Dongsheng is the integration of stack and industrial resources, and the advantage of Dow technology is the core of the whole upstream chain: membrane electrode (MEA). "The organic combination and coordinated development of membrane electrode assembly, stack and system integration will surely breed the world's leading high-performance fuel cell system."
Rong Jihua further described the MEA: "The stack can be understood as the engine of a hydrogen-fueled automobile, and the MEA is the core' chip' in the stack. The development of MEA consists of basic research and development of efficient catalyst, surface/interface design, material manufacturing process design, system prototype design, feedback testing, engineering optimization, manufacturing and other links and fields. Every link needs a world-class team to handle in order to make the world-leading MEA products. Because of this, the cost of MEA accounts for more than 50% of the total cost of the stack, which is a veritable' core in the core'. "
But so far, MEA is still monopolized by foreign enterprises, mainly Ballard Power Systems. In order to achieve a breakthrough, Dow Technology has established an international top team headed by Dr. DustinBanham, whose members include the world's top fuel cell catalyst experts, surface/interface chemistry experts, MEA prototype designers of well-known fuel cell companies, senior engineering optimization experts and engineering teams with more than ten years of experience. Rong Jihua bluntly said that the company is not stingy in the construction of talent echelon.
According to reports, Dr. DustinBanham is a senior scientist in Ballard, leading dozens of international expert teams to design and develop low-platinum catalysts and membrane electrode assemblies, and successfully realizing the commercialization of the world's first platinum-free catalyst fuel cell product. He has rich experience in the development and commercial application of MEA, and has a deep understanding of the industrialization development of MEA. He has published more than 30 academic papers in professional journals with industry influence, been invited to give speeches at internationally renowned industry conferences such as the Gordon Fuel Cell Conference and the seminar of the US Department of Energy, and won the Top 100 Science and Technology R&D Award (R&D 100), which is known as the "Oscar" award for innovative products.
"I have great confidence in Dr. DustinBanham and the world-class team he leads. The company is carrying out the preliminary research and development work of MEA, and the research and development work will quickly enter the industrialization stage after reaching the node task goal. " Rong Jihua said.
The second curve jumps again.
Since its listing, Dow Technology has continuously entered new energy battery materials such as cobalt, lithium and graphene from a company specializing in ceramic glaze and ceramic ink, and now it is gearing up in the field of hydrogen fuel cells. With the continuous expansion of the territory, there are also some different voices in the market that the company's business layout may have the intention of catering to hot spots.
Rong Jihua is very indifferent to such a voice. "When we entered the new energy lithium battery material on 20 16, we were once suspected by the market whether it catered to hot spots. But in fact, as early as 20 12 and 20 13, I paid close attention to this field and made early resource layout and precipitation in advance. In 20 16, when the new energy automobile industry entered the state's strong support and industrialization blowout, we just followed the trend and accurately cut into this industry when the investment risk was small and the investment return was large. This is definitely not' following the trend' or' catering to hot spots'. "
In fact, Volume China has been preparing for fuel cells for three years. Three years ago, he realized the complementary effect of hydrogen energy and lithium battery: although the technology of lithium battery is relatively mature, there are some problems such as inadaptability to the cold environment in the north and long charging time, and hydrogen fuel cell can supplement and solve this defect well. During these three years, he visited a number of hydrogen fuel cell enterprises in China and the world, including Toyota, Ballard and Guo Hong Hydrogen Energy.
Ma Dongsheng is one of the partners of Dow Technology and an old friend whom Rong Jihua has known for many years. They have conducted in-depth discussions on the industrialization and localization of hydrogen fuel cells for many times, and agreed that MEA is the short board of the domestic hydrogen fuel cell industry chain at present, but it also contains great opportunities. As long as the core technology is mastered, the future development prospect will be very huge.
"Compared with some markets that cater to hot spots and arbitrage, the goals or concepts of our investment and mergers and acquisitions are completely different. We are a merger and acquisition based on industrial opportunities and consistent ideas. Both sides should have the same values as * * * in the long run, and everyone should be able to do a good job. Personally, I spend a lot of energy on new frontier trends every day and constantly look for new industrial opportunities. " Rong Jihua compares himself to a "thermometer" and always feels the heat of new things in the industry.
Rong Jihua believes that if enterprises want to make another leap on the "second curve", they must choose a better time to start their own development. If you wait until the enterprise begins to decline and then try to "find a way out", you have missed the best opportunity. "20 13 -20 15 is the golden period of the company's ceramic business development. In the eyes of outsiders, your performance is good and you have successfully listed. It's time to drink "celebration wine". Why spend so much thought on the transformation? However, I was actually thinking about the long-term development of the company long before I went public. I was very optimistic about new energy materials at that time. Since then, the company's strategy has also been to continuously lay out new energy materials. "
When talking about the company's transformation to the field of new energy materials, Rong Jihua said that Dow technology originally came from the research and development of materials, and new energy materials have many similarities with the company's own ceramic glaze and ceramic ink products in manufacturing technology and technical path. "Cobalt products, for example, are the core raw materials for producing ceramic ink, and the tailings of extracting lithium from lepidolite are just the raw materials for producing ceramic glaze. The layman may not understand the correlation and logic behind it, but we actually choose the direction of fit from the endogenous correlation. From the perspective of internal relations, the field we finally chose to enter has great relevance to the main ceramic industry. "
"The premise of transformation is to choose a correct runway first. The industry in which this runway is located needs broad prospects and certain high-speed growth every year, so that we can do it: if we don't do it, we must do it. Leading the industry. " Rong Jihua pointed out that Dow Technology has maintained a leading position in the traditional ceramic business for many years, and has also become a strong participant in the field of new energy lithium battery materials (cobalt, lithium and graphene). I am confident to become an industry leader in the hydrogen fuel cell industry in the future.