- Total scheduled production of lithium batteries in China hit a record high for the third consecutive month in May, driven by energy storage battery demand.
- CATL accounted for 40.7% of the global EV battery market share in the first quarter and completed a massive H-share placement last week.
CATL (SHE: 300750) surged in the Chinese A-share market to hit another record high, as strong scheduled production data for this month fueled investor optimism.
The battery giant's Shenzhen-traded shares rose 5.50% to close at 460 yuan per share on Wednesday, setting a new all-time high.
The broader battery sector in the Chinese A-share market strengthened today, with Gotion High-tech (SHE: 002074) rising 4.95% and Eve Energy (SHE: 300014) gaining 4.06% at the close. In addition, lithium materials supplier Ningbo Ronbay New Energy Technology (SHA: 688005) jumped 9.59%.
This robust stock market performance was partly driven by recent industry data.
The total scheduled production in China's lithium battery market reached 249 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in May, representing a 6% month-on-month increase and hitting a record high for the third consecutive month, according to an April 25 report by local market research firm Dadong Times.
This was mainly due to sustained strong demand for energy storage batteries, with the scheduled production share of energy storage cells surging to 42.3% in May, far exceeding the 14.7% for ternary cells, the report showed.
Despite the record-high total volume, the industry is undergoing a profound structural divergence, with the scheduled production of large-capacity energy storage cells above 500 ampere-hours continuing to increase.
This new generation of products primarily benefits from the robust demand for long-duration energy storage, while traditional 314Ah production lines are struggling with capacity utilization rates, the report said.
Furthermore, data released earlier today showed that CATL continues to maintain an absolute leading position in the global competitive landscape.
CATL's EV battery installations grew 15.2% year-on-year in the first three months of this year, and recorded a world-leading market share of 40.7% during this period, up from 38.5% a year earlier, according to data released by SNE Research on Wednesday.
In contrast, second-ranked BYD held a 13.7% share of the global market, down from 16.2% in the same period last year.
South Korean battery rivals also suffered market share declines due to slowing demand in the US market.
To further consolidate its global market position, CATL completed Hong Kong's largest share offering of the year last week.
The company completed an H-share placement of about HKD 39.2 billion ($5 billion), with the proceeds primarily intended to support its global capacity expansion.
($1 = HKD 7.8360)
