In recent years, energy storage, as an industry with strong long-term development certainty, has attracted a large number of players to enter the market. Data shows that in the first half of this year alone, the number of newly registered energy storage companies has exceeded 40,000. In the past two years, the number of newly registered energy storage companies has reached more than 150,000. As of June this year, the total number of energy storage companies has reached nearly 200,000.
With such a huge base, the intensity of industry competition can be imagined. Especially since this year, the continuous and fierce "price war" is accelerating the process of industry reshuffle. As the price of energy storage batteries continues to fall, the general consensus in the industry is that most second- and third-tier manufacturers are currently in a loss-making state, and most companies are likely to not survive this round of reshuffle cycle.
On the contrary, leading companies often indicate the direction of the industry. Recently, energy storage companies such as CATL, EVE Energy, R&D Power, Sungrow Power Supply, Canadian Solar, and Narada Power have successively released their 2024 semi-annual reports. From these data, we may be able to get a glimpse of the current and future development trends of the energy storage industry.
01
Energy storage battery shipments maintain high growth
According to recent statistics from new energy research organization InfoLink Consulting, CATL, EVE Energy and Ruipu Lanjun ranked the top three in global energy storage battery cell shipments in the first half of the year.
In terms of energy storage battery shipments , according to data disclosed in the semi-annual reports of various battery companies, Yiwei Lithium Energy's energy storage battery shipments in the first half of the year reached 20.95GWh , a year-on-year increase of 133.18%, more than doubling ; Ruipu Lanjun , whose energy storage battery segment is its largest business unit , shipped 8.6GWh of energy storage batteries, a year-on-year increase of 45%; CATL 's battery shipments in the first half of this year exceeded 200GWh, reaching approximately 95GWh and 110GWh in the first and second quarters respectively, with energy storage batteries accounting for approximately 20%. From this point of view, its energy storage battery shipments in the first half of the year exceeded 40GWh.
It is worth mentioning that Canadian Solar, a photovoltaic company with energy storage as its second main business, shipped 2.6GWh of energy storage products in the first half of this year, with a year-on-year shipment growth of 3,309% , or more than 33 times. Sungrow, which is firmly in the top spot as a domestic energy storage system supplier, added at the performance briefing that " this year's energy storage target is likely to exceed the 20GWh set at the beginning of the year. "
The high growth in energy storage product shipments is consistent with the huge development potential of the energy storage industry. From a domestic perspective, according to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's energy storage lithium battery production exceeded 110GWh in the first half of this year . According to the latest data from CNESA, in the first half of this year, the newly added installed capacity of new energy storage in China was 13.67GW/33.41GWh , with both power and energy scales increasing by 71% year-on-year.
02
Revenues of some companies' energy storage sectors have declined
From the perspective of the energy storage sector, CATL's energy storage system revenue was 28.825 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.00%. The energy storage business revenue accounted for 17.28% of its total revenue , and in recent years, its energy storage business revenue share has continued to grow, and energy storage has become its second largest business. EVE Energy's energy storage battery revenue increased by nearly 10% year-on-year to 7.774 billion yuan. The company with the highest year-on-year revenue growth was CLOU Electronics, whose energy storage business revenue was 463 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 240.27%.
At the same time, energy storage companies including Sungrow Power Supply and Narada Power Supply have seen a decline in energy storage revenue in the first half of this year. Taking Sungrow Power Supply as an example, its three core businesses are power electronic converters such as photovoltaic inverters, energy storage systems , and new energy investment and development. Among them, the energy storage business revenue was 7.816 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.30%. Energy storage is its only main business with negative growth.
Narada achieved revenue of 1.82 billion yuan in lithium-ion battery system products, a year-on-year decrease of 39.56%.
In fact, the decline in energy storage companies’ revenue is almost consistent with the latest trend changes in the energy storage industry. On the one hand , there are many players and fierce competition in the domestic and foreign markets, which has led to a decline in product prices; on the other hand , due to factors such as falling raw material prices and high inventory, the prices of energy storage companies’ products have also fallen.
From the perspective of the domestic bidding market, the scale of energy storage bidding continues to grow rapidly, with the scale of bidding exceeding 70GWh in the first half of this year , but the winning bid price continues to drop. According to CNESA statistics, the average winning bid price of domestic new energy storage systems in the first half of this year was 0.676 yuan/Wh, a year-on-year decrease of 49% , almost halving.
03
Energy storage "ceiling" has not yet been reached, and Chinese companies are accelerating their overseas orders
Product prices continue to fall, and "involution" has become a hot topic in the industry. Against this backdrop, Sungrow delivered an astonishing "answer sheet" with a gross profit margin of 40.8% for energy storage systems in the first half of the year . It also said, " There is no ceiling for energy storage yet, and it is expected to maintain a high growth rate in the future. " Sungrow's optimistic statement on the prospects of energy storage has undoubtedly injected a "boost" into the hearts of many companies participating in the energy storage track.
From the perspective of price alone, the price of energy storage battery products seems to be infinitely close to or even lower than the cost, but considering the profit margins of many leading energy storage companies, the gross profit margin is far from "rolling up to the bottom", and overseas market orders have become a "weapon" for companies to increase their profit margins.
In terms of gross profit margin , among the energy storage companies that have disclosed their semi-annual reports, the energy storage business gross profit margins of companies such as CLOU Electronics, Shenghong Holdings, CATL, EVE Energy, and Narada are all above 10%. Canadian Solar's energy storage business has also performed well in domestic and overseas markets.
The gross profit margin of CLOU Electronics' energy storage business reached 34.13% , a year-on-year increase of 28.72%. In addition, it is transforming from an equipment supplier to an integrator in the overseas market. Recently, its wholly-owned subsidiary CL Energy Storage Corporation signed an energy storage business contract with GEA TRANSMISORA SpA, a subsidiary of Transelec SA, a well-known Chilean company. In this project, CLOU Electronics provides large-scale whole-station system integration solutions for overseas owner customers as a system integrator.
The gross profit margin of Shenghong Energy's energy storage business is 30.01%. It is understood that Shenghong Energy's photovoltaic and energy storage integrated products, which are mainly developed for microgrid applications in areas without electricity, have been used in countries such as Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, as well as remote areas without electricity such as Africa.
Canadian Solar's energy storage company e-STORAGE has signed a number of large-scale overseas energy storage system contracts in the first half of this year . The total energy storage orders signed with Canada's NovaScotiaPower, Blackstone Group's AypaPower, and South Australia's Epic Energy alone have exceeded 1.4GWh . In addition, Battery China learned that as of the first half of this year, e-STORAGE's energy storage system order reserve has reached 66GWh.
In terms of battery companies , in the first half of this year, the gross profit margin of CATL's energy storage battery system was 28.87% , an increase of 7.55 percentage points from the same period in 2023. The gross profit margin of EVE Energy's energy storage battery was 14.38%. The semi-annual report released by Narada Power Supply showed that its gross profit margins for power energy storage and industrial energy storage both achieved year-on-year growth. By region, Narada Power Supply's domestic energy storage system gross profit margin was 24.29%, and its foreign energy storage system gross profit margin was 32.22%, which was nearly 8 percentage points higher than that of China. This shows to a certain extent that the profitability of the overseas energy storage market is much higher than that of China. In addition, from the product point of view, the gross profit margin of Narada Power Supply's lithium-ion battery system products reached 29.05%.
Judging from the overseas market, leading companies in China's energy storage industry, such as CATL, BYD, EVE Energy, Envision Energy Storage, Ripple Lanjun, Sungrow Power Supply, and Canadian Solar, are accelerating their overseas orders, and some media even exaggeratedly stated that "they are getting so many orders that they can't even hold their hands." According to agency statistics, in the first half of this year, Chinese energy storage industry chain companies have won more than 70GWh of energy storage orders overseas, which is almost the same as the scale of domestic bidding orders.
04
The energy storage market will still have great potential
In fact, judging from the development trend of the energy storage industry , there is still great potential in both the domestic and overseas markets.
First, energy storage demand scenarios are numerous and large-scale. With the increase in the installed capacity of new energy, the proportion and duration of storage are increasing. Remote areas without electricity or power shortage also provide important application scenarios for energy storage.
Secondly, the global demand for energy storage has begun to be released on a larger scale. Chinese companies frequently sign large overseas energy storage orders, indicating that the global energy storage market is undergoing profound changes and accelerating towards rationality and maturity. China's energy storage products will have more advantages in terms of quality, technology, and brand influence. The demand for energy storage in markets such as Europe, America, and the Middle East is growing significantly.
Third, with the continued decline in lithium carbonate prices, the cost reduction space for energy storage cells and systems has been further opened up, and there may still be a lot of room for "fighting" in the energy storage track.