Huawei announced its latest sulfide solid-state battery patent, China's first all-solid-state lithium battery mass production line was put into production, and Changyang Technology (688299) signed a contract with the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to jointly participate in the development of solid-state battery composite films. Recently, a number of phased achievements have emerged in the field of solid-state batteries, which have attracted attention.

In the view of Jin Yadong, chairman of Changyang Technology, with the continuous maturity of technology, the commercialization process of solid-state batteries is accelerating, bringing significant opportunities for material suppliers. From a technical point of view, although there are various technical routes for solid-state batteries, the mainstream routes are inseparable from solid-state electrolyte membranes, which are the key to improving the energy density of batteries. Therefore, the film-forming process has become a core link in the manufacture of solid-state batteries.

"The solid-state electrolyte membrane or ion-conducting membrane business for solid-state batteries is also an important direction for the company's future capacity expansion. After more than three years of research and development, the company has launched solid-state electrolyte films for solid-state and semi-solid-state batteries, which significantly improve battery performance and safety. At present, the company has obtained an order from a leading customer of power batteries and started production, and the construction of production capacity is accelerating. In the future, Changyang Technology will continue to iterate on technology, develop and reserve new products for the frontier of future science and technology, become a domestic '3M', and accelerate the realization of the development goal of 'ten films in ten years'. Recently, Jin Yadong said in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Times.

The production line is running at full capacity

Hefei, Anhui Province is one of the regions with the largest total scale and the most complete supply chain of the new energy automobile industry, and the Changyang Science and Technology functional film base film and deep processing integration project that has been put into operation at the beginning of this year is located here.

According to reports, the factory is located in Hefei New Station High-tech Zone, covering an area of 165 acres, with a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan, mainly producing lithium battery separators, key core materials for power batteries, and optical grade polyester base films, key materials in the field of new displays, after the project is fully produced, it will achieve an annual output of 560 million square meters of lithium battery separator materials and an annual production capacity of 20,000 tons of optical-grade polyester base film, the factory is also the third production base of Changyang Technology in the country.

A few days ago, the Securities Times reporter conducted a field visit to the Hefei factory of Changyang Technology, and the reporter put on shoe covers, changed into dust-proof clothing, and entered the production workshop under the guidance of the staff.

In the workshop, the reporter saw a busy and orderly production scene. After a series of processes such as phase separation, stretching, extraction, and reaming, the separator raw materials are processed by advanced production equipment. In the dust-free workshop, it is equipped with automatic thickness gauge and online defect detector to achieve highly automated production of dry and wet diaphragms to ensure the stability and consistency of products. In addition, the factory is also equipped with advanced testing equipment such as metallographic microscope, aperture analyzer, air permeability meter, etc., to ensure the high standard and high quality of products.

"The production process is the key to the production process of the company's products. By optimizing the process parameters, Changyang Technology has formed a mature production technology, and continuously improved to improve the efficiency and yield, while also ensuring the consistency of product performance, providing the company with technical advantages and profit margins, and ensuring the industry-leading competitiveness. Workshop staff told reporters.

The person in charge also said that with the acceleration of the transfer of lithium-ion battery production capacity to China, a good industrial environment provides soil for the development of enterprises in the separator industry chain, and the Yangtze River Delta region, especially Hefei City, has formed new energy vehicles, new materials and other related industrial clusters, such as Hefei's BYD, Weilai, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, etc. "The functional film business for lithium batteries is the most important force and growth point of the company in the future, and it is also the key direction of the company's future production capacity layout. The company strives to form a product matrix with more types and the best quality of lithium battery separators through technology iteration and product upgrading within ten years. ”

Solid-state batteries offer new opportunities

"The industrialization process of solid-state batteries is accelerating, and it is expected that the rapid commercialization will be achieved from low-altitude business in 2025, and the large-scale commercialization of passenger vehicles is expected to be between the end of 2025 and 2027. From a technical point of view, solid-state battery technology as a whole is divided into five generations, and has now reached the fourth generation of technology, and the supply chain is gradually opening up. Today's semi-solid-state batteries have entered the stage of small-scale production, mainly used in drones and other fields. Looking to the future, low-altitude economic aircraft, new energy passenger vehicles, and humanoid robots will become the largest application markets, followed by energy storage, consumer electronics, and two-wheeled vehicles. Jin Yadong told the Securities Times reporter.

Yadong Jin graduated from Peking University with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Leuven in Belgium and the European Center for Microelectronics. In 2010, Jin Yadong founded Changyang Technology, and led the R&D team to take the liquid crystal display optical reflective film as the entry point, independently design the production line, and the comprehensive performance of the product has reached the international leading level, filling the domestic gap, breaking the monopoly of foreign companies, and achieving the first global market share.

According to reports, in the field of new energy vehicles, solid-state batteries are highly anticipated due to their advantages such as high safety, high energy density and long service life. Major car companies such as Changan Automobile, BYD, SAIC and Geely Automobile, as well as battery companies such as CATL and Beijing Weilan, are actively deploying solid-state batteries.

As solid-state battery technology matures, the film deposition process is widely recognized in the industry as a critical step in the manufacturing process.

Jin Yadong told reporters that solid-state batteries are mainly divided into three major technical routes: polymers, oxides and sulfides. Either way, the solid-state electrolyte film is key, and it's essential to increase the energy density of the battery. "The film-forming process is a core part of solid-state battery manufacturing, and the solid-state electrolyte film not only facilitates lithium-ion transport, but also prevents electron conduction between the positive and negative electrodes."

According to Changyang Technology's preliminary estimates, if the output of solid-state batteries is 100GW, the amount of new functional separators will be about 1.5 billion to 2 billion square meters. This also means that with the rapid development of the solid-state battery industry, the company's solid-state battery separator will usher in explosive growth.

"At present, the company's solid-state battery film products have obtained small batch orders from leading power battery companies. With the further maturity of the customer's process, it is expected that the monthly supply volume will reach nearly one million square meters, and the monthly production capacity of each production line will reach 4 million square meters, which will be the focus of the company's future production capacity layout. Jin Yadong said that the company's R&D team spent more than three years to exclusively develop a new type of wet separator, which can achieve an order of magnitude ahead of its peers in electrolyte ion conductivity when applied to polymer solid-state electrolyte batteries. It can be applied to other electrolyte routes, which can effectively solve the expansion problem of carbon silicon anode or lithium metal anode. On the whole, there have been breakthroughs in improving the cycle life of solid-state and semi-solid-state batteries, battery capacity, service temperature, etc.

"Ten years and ten films" development goals

"The company will rely on Changyang Advanced Materials Research Institute to build a corresponding technology platform, continue to iterate technology, and develop and reserve new products for the future frontier of science and technology. Focus on the research and development and process exploration of separators, CPI films, optical base films and other products for solid-state and semi-solid-state batteries, and break through core technical barriers. At the same time, it will also continue to optimize the operation and governance structure of listed companies, optimize the company's product line in a timely manner, gradually strip the product production capacity with low gross profit and low threshold from listed companies when the conditions are ripe, and continuously improve the technical content and market competitiveness of listed companies, so that Changyang Technology will become a new material company with high technical barriers. Jin Yadong told reporters.

In addition to its development prospects in the field of solid-state batteries, Changyang Technology is also expected to benefit from the rapid development of the folding screen mobile phone market.

According to iResearch's report, the sales of folding screens have shown a rapid upward trend in recent years, and in 2023, China will ship 6.1 million folding screen mobile phones, a year-on-year increase of 69.1%; It is expected to maintain rapid growth from 2024 to 2025, with 10.7 million units expected to be shipped in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 74.5%, and 17.6 million units expected to be shipped in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 64.7%.

Jin Yadong told reporters that with the improvement of the user experience of folding mobile phones and the continuous decline of terminal prices, superimposed on the future of new products such as three-fold screen mobile phones and Apple folding mobile phones, it is expected that the shipment and penetration rate of folding mobile phones are expected to maintain a rapid growth trend. At present, CPI film is a more mainstream material solution for mobile phone folding screens, and the demand is expected to continue to increase.

"CPI film has high requirements for light transmittance, bending resistance, service life, deformation resistance and other properties, and the technical difficulty is very great. In 2018, the company began to work on the research and development of CPI membranes and self-developed products. At present, the company is investing in the construction of CPI film with an annual output of 1 million square meters, and it is expected that the first mass production line will be put into operation in 2025. After completion, the company will become one of the few enterprises in the world that can supply related products in batches, and break the foreign monopoly and achieve domestic substitution. In addition, based on CPI technology, the company has reserved a variety of extensible display products. Jin Yadong said.

As a science and technology innovation board company, attaching importance to R&D investment and technical reserves is a major background for Changyang Technology to break the technology monopoly.

According to the financial report, from 2022 to 2023, Changyang Technology's R&D expenses will be 51.96 million yuan and 68.72 million yuan respectively, showing a year-on-year upward trend, and the R&D expenses in the first half of 2024 will be 32.86 million yuan. This means that in two and a half years, Changyang Technology has invested more than 150 million yuan in R&D. As of June 30, 2024, the company has obtained a total of 238 authorized invention patents, of which 18 new authorized invention patents and 12 new invention patent applications have been obtained during the reporting period.

Talking about the future R&D direction, Jin Yadong said that under the leadership of the core team, the company has successfully seized the historical opportunity of the rapid development of special functional films, developed and reserved technologies and products in line with the development trend. The company will mainly focus on the five application scenarios of new display, semiconductor, low-altitude economy, new energy vehicles and energy storage, focusing on the development of key functional film products that rely heavily on imports and urgently need to achieve import substitution.

"The company's development path is clear, the positioning of R&D products is the only or first in the market, and it is committed to solving key technical problems, realizing import substitution, or launching innovative products in the global market, and gradually becoming a domestic '3M'. In the future, Changyang Technology will focus on endogenous growth, and at the same time actively look for mergers and acquisitions opportunities, and does not rule out the possibility of acquiring international companies. At the same time, the company will develop along the industrial chain, output Changyang's global capabilities, and take the creation of ten functional film products with one of the best market shares as the development goal in the next ten years, that is, to achieve the development goal of 'ten films in ten years'. Jin Yadong said.