Source: Daily Economic News

This year, China will surpass the United States to become the world's largest new energy automobile market. The global share of new energy automobile sales will exceed 40%, higher than the United States, Europe and Japan. This booming market also makes the cooperation prospects of leading enterprises in the new energy automobile industry chain more imaginative. The management of Zhongwang (01333.HK), the world's second largest and Asia's largest manufacturer of industrial aluminium extrusion products, revealed recently that the company is the exclusive supplier of raw materials for BYD new energy automobiles.

It is reported that Zhongwang Group began to cooperate with BYD Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. in 2012 to provide all-aluminium body skeleton profiles. All-aluminium body skeleton profiles consist of straight profiles and bending profiles. In the past four years of cooperation, Zhongwang Group has provided BYD with more than 20 models of profiles. The cooperation between the two sides has also developed from dozens of prototypes to thousands of today's.

"With the acceleration of lightweight process in the field of global environmental protection and transportation, and the continuous promotion of national policies, the new energy vehicle market has entered a golden period of development, and the demand for automotive aluminium materials has increased dramatically. The company is very optimistic about the market prospects, and will further promote the progress of related projects and the development of new products."

Continuous Policy Enhancement: China Becomes the World's Largest New Energy Automobile Market

Recently, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other five departments issued the Notice on the "13th Five-Year Plan" New Energy Vehicle Charging Facility Incentive Policy and Strengthening the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles, which is another good policy to promote the promotion of new energy vehicles after the purchase of new energy vehicles was directly subsidized by the government and tax-free concessions.

According to statistics, in the first half of 2015, the state ministries and commissions issued nearly 10 new energy vehicle incentive and support policies, including reducing and exempting the purchase tax of new energy vehicles and vessels, and opening access to electric passenger vehicles. Since the second half of the year, the policy support for the new energy automobile industry has been steadily increased. At the end of September, the State Council executive meeting decided on a series of measures to support the development of new energy automobiles, including the prohibition of restrictions on the purchase of new energy automobiles everywhere and the cancellation of existing ones. A few days ago, the General Office of the State Council issued the Guidance on Accelerating the Construction of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure. Opinions, strive to achieve substantive development in the field of charging piles at the same time.

The National Advisory Committee on Building a Strong Manufacturing Power has recently established a road map for the development of the new energy automobile industry in the next ten years. The road map shows that by 2025, the annual sales of new energy automobiles in China will reach 20% of the total demand of the automobile market, forming an independent and controllable industrial chain, selling 3 million new energy automobiles annually in line with the advanced international level, and the market share of new energy automobiles. The amount is over 80%.

Driven by the government's policy and the joint efforts of the upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, the development momentum of China's new energy automobile industry this year is very fierce.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) website recently released statistics on the production of new energy vehicles in November 2015. In November 2015, China produced 72,300 new energy vehicles, an increase of six times over the same period last year. Among them, pure electric passenger cars produced 30,000, a 7-fold increase over the previous year, plug-in hybrid electric passenger cars produced 7,509, a 2-fold increase over the previous year, pure electric commercial vehicles produced 30,900, an 18-fold increase over the previous year, plug-in hybrid commercial vehicles produced 3,893, a 97-fold increase over the previous year.

Data show that from January to November 2015, China's total production of new energy vehicles was 279.2 million, a four-fold increase over the same period last year. Among them, the production of pure electric passenger vehicles increased by 3.5 times, that of plug-in hybrid electric passenger vehicles increased by 53,000, 3 times, that of pure electric commercial vehicles increased by 11 times, and that of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles increased by 90% compared with the same period.

Xu Yanhua, deputy secretary-general of China Automobile Industry Association, also said at the first China New Energy Automobile Leaders Summit held recently that there is little doubt that China will surpass the United States in new energy automobile sales this year and become the world's largest new energy automobile market. He said sales of new energy vehicles in China are expected to reach 220,000 to 250,000 this year, while sales of new energy vehicles in the United States are about 180,000 all year round. In terms of sales, it is certain that China will become the world's largest new energy automobile market. China's new energy automobile sales will account for more than 40% of the world's total, which is higher than that of the United States, Europe and Japan, and will dominate the global new energy automobile market.

Industry insiders said that with the introduction of various support policies, enterprises have also increased investment in new energy vehicles, FAW, SAIC, Geely, Chery and other eight major domestic automobile companies have also announced the "13th Five-Year Plan" for new energy vehicles. According to rough statistics, the total number of new energy vehicles to be put into production in China is 91. With the further implementation of the development plan of new energy vehicles by domestic automobile enterprises, the demand for automotive aluminium materials will further increase, and the relevant aluminium enterprises will benefit significantly.

All-aluminium automotive body becomes a big trend. Demand for aluminium materials for automobiles has increased dramatically.

Different from traditional automobiles, new energy vehicles use batteries as power to drive automobiles, which is also restricted by the weight of power batteries and battery mileage. In vehicle design and material application, vehicle body lightweight becomes the first consideration of automobile enterprises. Therefore, the new energy vehicles driven by batteries are more in urgent need of body weight loss than traditional vehicles, which also opens up a broader market for light materials such as aluminium.

Aluminum has become an important lightweight material for automobiles due to its low density, good corrosion resistance and excellent plasticity. The proportion and components of aluminium alloy used in automobiles are increasing. In addition to light weight, aluminium can also bring higher safety performance. Because the strength of aluminium alloy is superior to that of pure steel, the impact force absorbed by all-aluminium body is greater than that of steel, so it can better ensure the safety of drivers and passengers in the car.

According to the classification of processing forms, automotive aluminium is mainly divided into three forms: die casting, extrusion and calendering. Among them, the amount of die casting is about 80%, and that of extrusion and calendering is about 10%. Die-casting parts are mainly used in engine, wheel and other parts, extrusion parts are mainly used in frame, luggage rack, door beam, etc., while calendering parts are mainly used to produce aluminium sheet for automobile body, etc. Generally speaking, the body weight accounts for about 30%~40% of the total vehicle weight. In the future, all-aluminium body will be the main direction of vehicle lightweight.

Aluminum is mainly used in new energy automotive parts, such as body, hub, chassis, anti-collision beam, floor, power battery, motor drive/drive assembly and seat.

Among them, the body includes the body frame made of high-performance aluminium profile and the skin and door made of high-precision aluminium plate; aluminium alloy wheel hub (cast aluminium wheel hub or forged aluminium wheel hub); chassis includes high-strength large cross-section aluminium profile structure and aluminium alloy forgings; bumper made of profile; floor of new energy bus; lithium ion battery includes battery positive aluminium foil, battery aluminium. Shell and battery aluminium pallet; new energy bus seat system, etc.

Aluminum Processing Enterprises Develop Towards High Precision and Change the Dependence on Import

Although China has become the world's largest aluminium processing country, the overall technological innovation capability of China's aluminium processing industry is still relatively weak, and the core technology and high-end products rely heavily on external. At present, most high-end aluminium products such as automobile body aluminium sheet and strip rely on imports. Zhongwang has long aimed at this market opportunity to advance the layout of high-end aluminum processing market.

Zhongwang management revealed: "Now the domestic transportation industry is in a critical period of transformation. Many domestic automobile brands have contacted Zhongwang to design body materials for them. Moreover, after the automobile manufacturer decides to use a certain manufacturer, the delivery period can be as long as 7 to 8 years."

In addition to providing raw materials for BYD's new energy vehicles, according to Zhongwang's earnings report in the third quarter of 2015, the new product and process design team set up by the company in 2014 has successfully developed new aluminium parts or body for a number of customers in the field of transportation. Among them, the company is conducting road tests for Huachen's new energy electric bus with aluminium body designed and manufactured by the company.

Huachen new energy electric bus project has the advantages of light weight, high strength, corrosion resistance and strong vibration absorption ability, and the weight reduction ratio is over 40% compared with the general steel body; moreover, from the design and development, material supply, deep processing and manufacturing and welding of large parts, it is completed by Zhongwang of China independently. Aluminum enterprise is only a material supplier now, instead of cooperating with automobile enterprise in the past. Shape. Zhongwang is also the first aluminium processing enterprise in China to design and manufacture all-aluminium new energy bus body independently.

In addition, the Tianjin aluminium calender project, which has been prepared by Zhongwang, China for five years, will soon be put into operation, which will fill the gap of domestic commercial production capacity in the lead area of high-end aluminium sheets.

According to Berstein Sanford's Aluminum Processing Industry Report, global consumption of aluminium calendering products was 22.9 million tons in 2014, and China's consumption accounted for 7.4 million tons, but mainly low-end products. "At present, the domestic production of high-end aluminium sheet is almost blank, mainly relying on imports." Lu Changqing, Executive Director and Vice President of Zhongwang, China, said, "With the development of China's economy, the demand for downstream aluminium products is expected to shift from low-end products to higher-tech automotive or aerospace strips or sheets, while China has not yet been able to produce such high-end products. Therefore, aluminium sheet for aviation and automobile is one of the group's future market goals, and the idea of making the whole car shell has also been in the group's planning. This is exactly the market target of Zhongwang Tianjin Aluminum Calendering Material Base.

It is reported that Zhongwang Tianjin aluminium calendering project will be carried out in two phases. The first phase has two production lines. The first production line mainly produces aluminium alloy plate with thickness of 6 mm to 300 mm, including transportation plate and chemical container plate used in the fields of aerospace, ships, commercial vehicles, special vehicles and rail vehicles; the second production line mainly produces aluminium sheet for transportation and packaging. Aluminum and other fields. At present, the plant construction and equipment installation of the first production line in the first phase of the project have been completed, and the final phase of equipment debugging is under way.