Written by the editorial team of Today Weekly
There is a Changchun Street in Xiaogang, Kaohsiung. The end of this road has been an abandoned factory for the past 10 years. Four months ago, construction vehicles began to drive in day and night. On the day of our visit, construction was underway on this 10,000-square-meter piece of land, with three giant cranes operating at the same time. As long as the progress goes smoothly in the future, Taiwan’s first super battery factory will be born here next year.
This battery cell factory has an annual production capacity of 1.8 GWh (megawatts), equivalent to the plant required for 24,000 electric vehicles. Its owner is the Taiwan Cement Group, which has invested 12 billion yuan to build the factory; Compared with another scene three years ago, there is a great contrast at the construction site.
“Global Battery Shortage” Industry Opportunities
Taiwan Cement threw tens of billions to cover the battery factory, grabbing market share
It was a press conference held at the headquarters of TCC. At that time, when the event came to an end, Zhang Anping, the director of TCC, who was about to return to the office, was stopped to inquire about its battery business, “Nengyuan Technology”, a subsidiary that had just won an order from Dyson, a major home appliance manufacturer. Are there plans to expand production? After being silent for a second, he frowned and said to the questioner: “Battery is a very capital-heavy industry, I have to think about it again, because… the risk is too great!”
Zhang Anping, who often says that he runs a business “very conservative”, why did his attitude change later?
Spread out the financial report of Taiwan Cement, you can get a glimpse of one or two. The financial report shows that Nengyuan, which has not made money since 2008, turned losses into profits in the third quarter of last year. Behind this, for TCC and the Taiwan battery industry, it represents an opportunity that has not been seen for a long time: The butterfly effect caused by a “global battery shortage”.
This opportunity made the battery company invested and established by TCC in 1998 finally start shipping to “depots” last year; That is to say, in the electric vehicle market of the “supercar” level, the market share of the batteries provided by Nengyuan was already the top 3 in the world last year.
The output value of batteries will exceed 100 billion US dollars
Formosa Plastics Group Fleet to Fight Business Opportunities, Hon Hai is Not Absent
The camera turns to Changhua City, which is the Taihua Changhua Plant, one of the Four Treasures of Formosa Plastics. One of the factories in the factory area of more than 200,000 square meters is now being transformed into a battery module factory. There is no room for it!” said Liu Huiqi, general manager of Formosa Biomedical.
In the past, in the battery industry, Formosa Plastics only had upstream materials, downstream modules, and only midstream battery cells. However, an insider of Formosa Plastics told us, “We are thinking ‘very seriously’ now. To make battery cells, it has been calculated internally before that the group can produce about 60% of upstream materials.”
In fact, in addition to Taiwan Cement and Formosa Plastics, another heavyweight industry giant is also rumored to be preparing to invest heavily in this wave of battery investment, “Recently, the industry has been spreading rumors about Formosa Plastics and…, and “Hon Hai” ‘, they are going to come in (to build a battery cell factory)!” said Zhang Zhongjie, chairman of Gestech.
In this regard, an insider of Hon Hai Group said, “We will definitely make battery cells, and we will announce it when the time is right. We said last year that batteries for electric buses will be launched in 2023.”
In the past, the battery industry was a “tragic industry” in the eyes of Taiwanese technologists: it set off a wave of investment in the late 1990s and 2008, including groups such as Uni-President, Taiwan Cement, Taidian, ZTE Textile, Datong, and Formosa Plastics. , both held money to invest in battery material factories and battery core factories; but the two waves of upsurges were like meteors, and then the factories almost lost their money.
Now, including Taiwan Cement, Formosa Plastics, and the rumored Hon Hai, they have all taken on a new fighting stance of “going hard”; Taiwan’s battery industry, which has “learned two lessons” for more than 20 years, this time, What different opportunities do you see?
Batteries may become the “new normal”
Depots, energy storage companies, and 3C brands compete for card slots
According to the statistics of the Industrial Research Institute, the global output value of rechargeable batteries reached nearly 95 billion US dollars last year, and this year is expected to exceed 100 billion US dollars. Among them, the output value of lithium batteries officially surpassed the long-term mainstream lead-acid batteries last year, reaching 48.6 billion US dollars. This year More will be seen up to 56 billion US dollars.
The research agency SNE estimates that due to the explosion of the electric vehicle market last year, the number of vehicles delivered has more than doubled, resulting in key components | lithium batteries will be in short supply from next year, and will continue until 2030; if the use and discharge of 3C products are deducted For small batteries, only “power batteries” with large discharge capacity and can drive motors are counted. The time point when the supply is in short supply will be advanced to this year, and it is estimated that 12% of the demand cannot be met.
The revival of the third wave of Taiwan’s battery industry, the end of the future road, is it darkness or light? This time, Taiwanese businesses from all walks of life have plucked up the courage to give it a go, and are looking forward to the government’s policy support. The most important opportunity in 13 years has come, and a good show is going on. For more content, please refer to the latest issue of Today’s Weekly (No. 1314)
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