On the evening of April 15, CATL took the lead in disclosing its financial report for the first quarter of 2024.
At a time when the industry's prospects are unclear, the lithium battery giant has delivered a better-than-expected answer sheet, with multiple indicators and data depicting the continuation of its strong performance in the market.
Overall, in the first quarter of 2024, CATL’s revenue was 79.77 billion yuan, a slight year-on-year decrease of 10.41%. In absolute terms, CATL's revenue this quarter hit a new low since the second quarter of 2022; and in the past 2023, CATL maintained a record of revenue exceeding 100 billion for three consecutive quarters.
However, this change in revenue scale cannot be interpreted apart from the battery sales of CATL.
Market data shows that from January to March 2024, CATL achieved 41.31GWh of power battery installed in vehicles, an increase of nearly 30% from 29.25GWh in the same period last year; its market share reached 48.93%, a year-on-year increase of 4 percentage points, firmly taking the leading top spot.
According to CATL’s latest performance exchange meeting, the company’s total battery sales in the first quarter reached approximately 95GWh. Among them, energy storage batteries, which have the fastest business growth, account for nearly 20% of shipments.
The reason for the decline in revenue due to increased sales of batteries, according to CATL, is mainly due to the decrease in the cost of battery raw materials, the lack of cost support for battery prices, and the corresponding downward trend, while the product structure has not changed much and has little impact. The market-expected drop in both volume and price did not occur.
Judging from market quotations, in the first quarter of this year, the prices of iron lithium and ternary batteries did show a slight decline, with the average price of iron lithium batteries falling to the range of 0.3 yuan/Wh; at the same time, the average price of the upstream raw material lithium carbonate stable at a low level of around 100,000 yuan.
Some people point out that although the battery price of CATL has declined, its quotation has always been higher than the industry average price. This is because its battery products are highly differentiated and have high added value, and the market recognizes and pays for them. CATL, especially in The share of mid- to high-end models is higher. This is also the core of CATL's ability to maintain profit scale.
According to third-party calculations, from 2021 to 2023, the unit prices of CATL batteries are 0.79, 0.97, and 0.89 yuan/wh respectively, while the quotations of iron lithium and ternary batteries in the market during the same period are 0.44/0.55, 0.88/0.96, and 0.58/0.65 yuan/wh respectively.
Against this background, CATL achieved a non-net profit of 9.247 billion yuan in this quarter, a year-on-year increase of 18.56%; the gross profit margin was as high as 26.42%, the highest in the past ten quarters.
CATL stated at the performance exchange meeting that Kirin and Shenxing were very popular with customers in the first quarter, and their scale proportion continued to increase. Next, as fast charging becomes standard equipment on models, the proportion of related differentiated products will continue to increase.
In addition, CATL's asset impairment this quarter was only 500 million yuan, a sharp decline from 3 billion yuan in the previous quarter, mainly due to the stabilization of lithium carbonate prices and the dissipation of inventory impairment risks.
In terms of inventory, CATL’s inventory in this quarter was 44 billion yuan, a slight decrease of 3% from the 45.4 billion yuan in Q4 of 2023. The company’s initiative to destock has come to an end.
Looking forward to the second quarter, how will CATL interpret the two key cards in its hands - one is its leading products and technologies including Shenxing batteries, skateboard chassis, etc., and the other is the new TO C market represented by CATL INSIDE. Strategy - also leaves ample room for observation within the industry.
With the Xiaomi SU7 equipped with the all-round version of Shenxing Batteries officially entering the delivery stage, and new models starting from the Beijing Auto Show at the end of April, the installed volume of CATL power batteries is expected to usher in a new round of peaks in the second quarter. Its performance in phosphoric acid The market share of the iron-lithium segment will also be more stable.
