CATL ramps up efforts in electrified ship manufacturing! Chery withdraws from shareholder status

Taking over Wuhu Shipyard

According to reports, Wuhu Shipyard Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Wuhu Shipyard") has An industrial and commercial change occurred on July 5. Chery Holdings withdrew from the shareholder list, and seven companies including Aspiration Investment and Qingdao Wudaokou under CATL became new shareholders.

Seven new shareholders jointly completed the replacement of Chery Holdings’ shareholding. After the equity change, Wuhu State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission became the actual controlling party, while Yin Tongyue, Party Secretary and Chairman of Chery Holding Group, holds approximately 17% of the shares of Wuhu Shipyard through his personal holding company.

As shown in the figure below, Wuhu Ruichuang Investment Co., Ltd., where Yin Tongyue holds 87.5270% of the shares, is the third largest shareholder of Wuhu Shipyard; Aspiration Investment, which holds 100% of the shares of CATL, It is already the ninth largest shareholder of Wuhu Shipyard.

Information shows that the Wuhu Shipyard was formerly the Fujiheng Machinery Factory founded in 1900. It has a history of 123 years and has produced China’s first wooden torpedo speedboat. The first comprehensive marine survey ship and China’s first 2600P offshore oil platform three-purpose work ship.

The current main business of Wuhu Shipyard involves civil ship series such as liquid cargo ships, bulk carriers, multi-purpose ships, offshore engineering ships, special ships, as well as non-shipping products such as non-ferrous metal castings . At the same time, Wuhu Shipyard is also an important production base for the Navy's comprehensive marine survey ships and other military auxiliary ships.

　The future of ship electrification is promising

　 The electrification market in the ship market is a very big piece of cake.

Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics show that the total number of motorized ships in my country in 2018 was 125,700, and the net tonnage of Neihu ships in 2018 was 195 million tons. In 2018, the total output value of my country's electric ship lithium battery market was 44 million. That is, the proportion of my country's ship electrification in 2018 was 0.016%, and the market share was very small.

With the development of power batteries in my country making great progress, starting from 2019, my country’s ship electrification has pressed the “shortcut button”. Data shows that the lithium electrification penetration rate of my country's electric ships reached 0.035% in 2019, more than double that of 2018.

In 2022, data from Clarksons, a British shipbuilding and shipping analysis agency, shows that alternative fuel ships will account for more than half of new ship orders for the first time, reaching about 60% of the total new ship orders. That is, new energy ships account for 60% of new ship orders.

From January to May this year, domestic shipping companies undertook new ship orders of 26.45 million deadweight tons, a year-on-year increase of 49.5%.

The penetration rate of new energy ships is rising rapidly, both due to external and internal factors:

Policy promotion is an important reason. In July 2021, the European Commission proposed that shipping be included in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships calling at EU ports (the proposal has now been adopted).

The proposal requires ships calling at EU ports and sailing within the EU to pay 90 euros per ton of carbon dioxide emissions by 2024 (only 40% of total carbon emissions will be paid in 2024, 100% of total carbon emissions will need to be paid by 2026). Under the agreement, the operating costs of a bulk carrier emitting about 16,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year will increase by 1.3 million euros by 2026. This policy is equivalent to charging a "carbon emission tax" on ships, forcing shipping companies to transition to new energy sources.

In addition to policy promotion, the shipping industry itself is also ushering in a new round of replacement cycle, because many ships are too old. In 2022, the average age of global ships with a gross tonnage of greater than 100 tons will be 22.7 years, a record high.

In the shipping industry, the age of general "retirement" of maritime ships is 25 years old. Considering that the delivery time of new ships is 1-2 years, this year is the starting point of a new round of shipbuilding cycle.

The ship electrification layout of CATL

The electric ship layout of CATL began in January 2019. At that time, CATL signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the China Classification Society (CCS) Wuhan Standardization Institute in Fujian, marking CATL's entry into the shipbuilding field.

In June 2019, the Yangtze River Three Gorges Navigation Administration's "Haixun 12909", the first pure electric official ship in the Yangtze River Basin, was equipped with CATL's lithium iron phosphate batteries. The capacity is 680KWh and the maximum speed is 21km/h.

In April 2020, CATL became the first domestic power battery company to be recognized and inspected by China Classification Society's latest inspection guideline "Inspection Guidelines for Pure Battery Powered Ships".

In mid-September 2020, the main hull and superstructure of the 486-passenger Pearl River Cruise pure electric cruise ship, equipped with CATL’s 3000kWh ultra-high-capacity battery system, were combined.

In August 2021, my country’s first 120 TEU pure electric inland river container ship “Jiangyuan Lily” built by Zhenjiang Shipyard of Jiangsu Province for Jiangsu Ocean Shipping Co., Ltd. was successfully launched. The ship has a cruising range of 220 kilometers and is powered by pure batteries. It is designed with a "plug and pull" battery replacement mode, and a single battery replacement only takes 20 minutes. The ship's lithium iron phosphate battery was also provided by CATL.

In April 2022, the world's largest pure electric cruise ship "Yangtze Three Gorges 1" was officially put into commercial operation. The battery cell supplier for the cruise ship is CATL. The total battery capacity is about 7500kWh, which is equivalent to the total battery capacity of 125 Tesla model 3 cars...

Up to now, CATL’s marine products It has been applied in multiple ship types and scenarios in the Yangtze River, Pearl River, Min River, Kanas Lake and coastal areas, and has been deployed on about 200 ships in various domestic waters.

The Wuhu Shipyard taken over by CATL is also manufacturing electric ships, which is consistent with CATL’s electric ship business direction:

2021 In 2020, Wuhu Shipyard delivered the world's first 22,000-ton battery hybrid chemical tanker "Prospero", and in 2022 it delivered the same type of ship "Pacifico". This type of ship uses LNG + fuel dual-fuel propulsion, and is also equipped with electric drive. There is no need to start the diesel generator during normal navigation. It only relies on the main engine to drive the shaft generator to ensure continuous power supply for navigation equipment, achieving energy conservation and environmental protection for ship navigation.

In March this year, Wuhu Shipyard delivered the first 21,500-ton oil tanker "ATLANTIC NARVAL", which is the largest asphalt tanker built in Anhui Province. The ship is equipped with a dual-fuel engine, which can be propelled by LNG/LBG power and is equipped with a power battery.

Also in March this year, Wuhu Shipyard undertook an order from Chery Automobile for three LNG dual-fuel powered car carriers with 7,000 parking spaces., construction is expected to start in 2023.

Data shows that among the current orders held by Wuhu Shipyard, 8 are battery hybrid ships, which are expected to be delivered one after another between 2023 and 2025.

Ningde Times and Wuhu Shipyard can be described as a strong alliance.

　Summary

　CATL’s investment in Wuhu Shipyard has attracted market attention to the ship electrification market. In fact, in addition to CATL, more than 30 lithium battery companies such as Yiwei Lithium Energy, Hefei Guoxuan, Ruipu Energy, Sunwoda, Penghui Power, Ganfeng Lithium, and Xingying Technology have obtained CCS testing certification. , got the “ticket” to enter the field of electric ships.

The field of electric ships is heating up.

It is worth mentioning that safety is still the biggest consideration for power batteries used in ships, and lithium iron phosphate batteries are the first choice!

Original title: CATL takes over, Chery withdraws!