Annual Output of CATL-FAW Power Battery Exceeds 10B Yuan

On September 21, CATL-FAW Power Battery Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of leading Chinese battery firm CATL, held a ceremony during which it acknowledged “the second anniversary of production and annual output value exceeding 10 billion yuan ($1.41 billion).”

The entity, located in Ningde, Fujian Province, is a joint battery venture established by CATL, Chinese carmaker FAW Group, new energy vehicle maker Dongfeng Intelligent Power, and Changan New Energy Automobile, with a total investment of 8 billion yuan. In September 2020, the first production line of CATL-FAW Power Battery was put into operation. After two years of development, the first phase of the production line has been put into operation, and part of the second phase of production line has also been put into use.

CATL-FAW Power Battery has supplied high-quality battery products for models made by many brands, including FAW Hongqi’s FME platform, FAW-Volkswagen’s MEB platform, Dongfeng Motor’s Lantu, and Changan Automobile’s Deep Blue.

As the world’s largest battery manufacturer, CATL expects its production capacity to reach over 670GWh by 2025. It is the 15 major production bases of CATL that support this goal, including 10 self-built bases and five joint venture bases operated in cooperation with car companies. The joint venture bases include CATL-FAW Power Battery’s, with a production capacity of 26GWh.

According to a financial report for the first half of 2022 released by CATL on August 23, operating income in the first half of this year was 112.971 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 156.32%. The net profit attributed to parent company was 8.168 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 82.17%.

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The significant revenue bump has been underpinned by the exploding new energy vehicle market, which has led to a leap in demand for car batteries. According to data by the China Association of Automotive Manufacturers (CAAM), the cumulative sales volume of new energy vehicles in China reached 2.6 million in the first half of the year, up 115% year-on-year. According to SNE Research, a South Korean research company, global battery usage in the first half of the year was 203.4 GWh, up 76.8% year-on-year.

However, CATL achieved a net profit attributed to parent company of only 1.49 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, a quarterly low since 2021 and down 23.62% year-on-year. The firm explained that as prices of raw materials in the new energy industry have increased rapidly, pressure on battery costs have gradually increased.

In terms of market ranking, CATL still led the Chinese battery industry during the first half of the year, but its share of the market has declined. According to data from the China Automotive Power Battery Innovation Alliance, during the first half of this year, CATL accounted for 47.67% of the power battery installment market, while in 2021, the figure was 52.1%.