CBAK Energy Technology - Earnings Call - Q4 2024

Executive Summary

• FY 2024 delivered a sharp turnaround to profitability at the consolidated level (net income attributable to shareholders $11.79M; diluted EPS $0.13), powered by battery-segment margin expansion, but Q4 itself was weak with a consolidated net loss as Hitrans’ raw materials unit weighed on results.
• Battery business gross margin expanded to 31.5% for FY 2024 (+7.7ppt YoY), with net income rising 39% to $19.43M; residential energy and LEV demand were resilient, while EV revenues fell YoY.
• Management accelerated capacity plans: Nanjing Phase II adds ~3 GWh in 2025; Dalian upgrades to launch 40135 cells (~2.3 GWh) by end-2025; total cylindrical-cell capacity expected to reach ~7.6 GWh by end-2025, with overseas production targeted for 2026 to mitigate tariffs.
• Wall Street consensus from S&P Global was unavailable for Q4/FY comparison; investors should focus on margin durability, capacity ramp execution, and tariff/geopolitical navigation as near-term stock catalysts.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Battery segment margins and profits inflected: gross margin 31.5% (+7.7ppt YoY) and net income $19.43M (+39%), with CEO highlighting performance “ahead of many competitors” and strong 32140 demand exceeding supply.
• Consolidated turnaround: FY gross margin improved to 23.7% (+8.2ppt YoY) and net income attributable to shareholders reached $11.79M, reversing FY 2023 loss; CFO emphasized battery segment robustness despite lower consolidated revenues.
• Capacity and product roadmap: commissioning two new 32140 lines (~3 GWh) in Nanjing by late-2025; Dalian upgrade to 40135 adds ~2.3 GWh; management expects substantial revenue growth from 2026 on ramp-up.

What Went Wrong

• Q4 softness: derived consolidated Q4 net revenues ~$25.37M and operating loss ~$6.59M; consolidated net loss attributable to shareholders ~-$4.51M, reflecting Hitrans weakness and seasonal/mix factors.
• Segment mix pressure: EV battery revenues fell 41.7% YoY in FY 2024 to $1.68M, and Q3 energy storage revenue was down 25% YoY amid a planned Dalian maintenance shutdown impacting throughput.
• Geopolitical/tariff headwinds: customers pushing for overseas manufacturing; management cautioned on tariff risk and macro softness at end-applications, with Hitrans industry in downturn and no new investments planned there.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to CBAK Energy Technology's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we'll conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at the time. As a reminder, we are recording today's call. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Now, I'll turn the call over to Yixian Tian, IR Specialist of CBAK Energy. Ms. Tian, please proceed.

Yixian Tian (Investor Relations Specialist)

Thank you, Operator, and hello everyone. Welcome to CBAK Energy's earnings conference call for the fourth quarter and full year 2024. Joining us today are Mr. Zhiguang Hu, or Jason, Chief Executive Officer of CBAK Energy; Mr. Jiewei Li, Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary; our General Engineer, Mr. Xu Xiangtian, and Yu Wen, who will help with our interpretation, will join us for the Q&A section. We released our results earlier today. The press release is available on the company's IR website at ir.cbak.com.cn, as well as from the Newswire services. A replay of this call will also be available in a few hours on our IR website. Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties.

As such, the company's actual results may be materially different from the expectation expressed today. Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in the company's public filings with the SEC. The company does not assume any obligations to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable laws. Also, please note that, unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned during the conference call are in U.S. dollars. With that, let me now turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. Zhiguang Hu. Please go ahead, Jason.

Zhiguang Hu (CEO)

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our earnings conference call for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024. I'm pleased to present the performance of our battery business for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024. Net revenues for the battery segment increased modestly by 2.7%, reaching $136.59 million for the year. Despite the moderate growth in revenue, our gross profit for the battery segment surged by 37.58%, rising from $31.58 million to $43.05 million. The gross profit margin of the battery segment expanded significantly to 31.5%, compared to 23.75% in 2023, marking an impressive increase of 7.7 percentage points year-over-year. We reported a net income of our battery segment of $19.43 million for the year 2024, compared to $13.97 million in 2023, marking an impressive increase of 39.08%.

As we have consistently emphasized over the past few quarters, this is exceptionally outstanding gross profit and net income figures are particularly noteworthy given the prevailing challenge and downturn in the broader new energy sector. While many of our competitors, including prominent Chinese battery manufacturers, are experiencing declining profit, our performance stands in stark contrast. As communicated in previous press releases, demand for batteries, especially the Model 32140 Li-ion cell, remains exceptionally strong. Our current production capacity in Nanjing is fully booked, which means net revenues are likely to remain steady unless additional capacity becomes available. To address this demand, we are in the process of commissioning two new production lines for the Model 32140 in Nanjing, expected to be operational by the end of 2025. The expansion will add 3 GWh of production capacity.

Additionally, we are upgrading our Dalian facilities, which currently manufactures the older Model 26650 since 2006. A new production line will be introduced to produce the larger Model 40135 battery, adding another 2.3 GWh of capacity. This upgrade is also anticipated to be completed by the end of 2025. With this expansion and upgrades, we are confident in our ability to achieve substantial revenue growth starting in 2026. I would also like to provide our investors and shareholders with an overview of our current and future product portfolio. We have two primary product lines manufactured at our Dalian and Nanjing facilities: the Model 26650, along with our variant Model 26700 and Model 32140. Both the Model 26650/26700 and Model 32140 are LiFePO4 cells. The Model 26650/26700 series, developed in 2006 as the world's first LiFePO4 cells, continues to hold a significant position in the market.

While this model may be considered outdated in certain aspects, they remain popular in specific segments, particularly in the home energy storage and portable power supply market across Europe and the United States. We anticipate a gradual decline in sales for this model. However, they are expected to contribute to a portion of our net revenues. Additionally, we foresee a shift among major customers from this legacy model to larger cell formats, such as the Model 32140 and the upcoming Model 40135. The Model 32140, our flagship product manufactured at our Nanjing facilities, is widely utilized in the portable power supply sector and is rapidly gaining traction in the LEV sector, particularly for two and three-wheeler vehicles. According to the market research, our 32140 cells command 19% of global market share, with demand for outpacing our current production capacity.

As previously mentioned, we are preparing to launch a new large cylindrical cell, the Model 40135. This model is designed to serve the portable power supply and home energy storage sectors. We expected a number of our existing customers for the Model 26650 to transition to this new model. Once the Model 40135 enters mass production by the end of this year, we anticipate a substantial increase in net revenue for our Dalian facilities. Looking ahead, our production portfolio will consist of small cylindrical cells, Model 26650/26700 from Dalian, and large cylindrical cells, Model 40135 from Dalian, and Model 32140 from Nanjing, enabling us to meet the diverse needs of our customers effectively. As always, we will also provide an update on our announced clients.

As of March 10, 2025, the total value of orders received but not yet delivered at our major production bases in Dalian and Nanjing has reached RMB 126.96 million, approximately $17.54 million. Our accumulated order volume with PowerOak now stands at approximately RMB 87.05 million, about $12.03 million. While our total orders with the Viessmann Group have reached EUR 213 million, approximately $231.2 million. Additionally, our order value with Jinpeng Group has grown to RMB 75.55 million, about $10.44 million. Notably, our key clients, Anker, have placed orders totaling RMB 448 million, approximately $61.82 million. Since the beginning of our collaboration, we believe that the demand from some of these customers in 2025 will likely increase significantly. I would also like to provide a summary of our current production capacity and the planned expansion to offer our investors and shareholders a clearer perspective.

At present, our Dalian facility has an annual capacity of 1 GWh for the Model 26650 and 26700, while our Nanjing facility has a capacity of 1.3 GWh for the Model 32140. As previously reported, we are in the process of expanding our capacity by adding 2.3 GWh for the Model 40135 at our Dalian facility and 3 GWh for the Model 32140 at our Nanjing facilities. By the end of 2025, our total production capacity for cylindrical cells is expected to reach 7.6 GWh. However, it is important to note that it will take time for the newly added production lines to ramp up to full capacity. This means that we may not achieve the full employment of 6 GWh by the end of this year.

Nonetheless, the design of this expanded capacity underscores the substantial potential for growth and scalability, offering our investors a promising outlook for the future. Overall, we have successfully sustained strong momentum in our battery business by maintaining a higher gross profit margin and outperforming most of our competitors in terms of net profitability. We are confident that the battery segment will remain profitable in 2025. In addition, we are actively upgrading our product portfolio and expanding production capacity to address the surging demand. With the new capacity coming online, we anticipate another phase of significant growth in 2026. Now, let me turn the call to our CFO, Jiewei Li.

Jiewei Li (CFO)

Thank you, Jason, and thanks, everyone, for making time to join our earnings conference call today.

As Jason has presented the net revenues growth and gross profit figures for our battery segment, I will now provide an overview of our consolidated financial results, which include the performance of Hitrans, our raw materials production unit. In the interest of time, I will focus only on the key metrics rather than discussing the figures in detail. For a comprehensive breakdown of our financial performance, we encourage you to refer to our press release issued earlier today. For the full year, our consolidated net revenues declined by 13.61%, falling to $176.61 million from $204.44 million in 2023. Despite this decrease, consolidated gross profit rose significantly by 31.68%, reaching $41.75 million compared to $31.72 million in the previous year. The gross profit margin improved substantially to 23.7%, an increase of 8.18 percentage points from 15.52% in 2023.

We achieved a net income attributable to shareholders of CBAK Energy of $11.79 million for 2024, a remarkable turnaround from the net loss of $2.45 million reported in 2023. This performance demonstrates our ability to generate higher gross profits and achieve positive net income despite lower net revenues. The decline in consolidated net revenues and the lower consolidated net income, especially when compared to the significantly higher net income of our battery segment, can be primarily attributed to the performance of our raw materials production unit, Hitrans. The raw materials industry, particularly for those related to lithium-ion batteries, has faced declining prices over the past few years, which have since stabilized at relatively low levels. Additionally, the industrial-wide capacity expansion that began in 2021 has led to an oversupply, intensifying competition and creating operational challenges for Hitrans.

On a positive note, since acquiring Hitrans in 2021, we have chosen not to integrate its products into our battery segment supply chain. We also retain Hitrans' core investment team to ensure its independence. Moreover, we have fully met our financial obligations to Hitrans, meaning its financial performance doesn't directly impact our battery segment's results. This strategic separation is why we have focused exclusively on reporting the financial performance of our battery segment during our earnings conference calls. This approach provides our investors and shareholders with a clear and more accurate understanding of our company's core performance. Next, I would like to provide an update on our overseas capacity deployment plan. In response to current geopolitical risks and at the request of our major customers, we are actively exploring solutions to mitigate existing and potentially higher tariffs.

In recent months, we have conducted extensive visits to Southeast Asia to evaluate potential sites for establishing our overseas factory, which we plan to proceed with in the coming months. We are still assessing whether to relocate part of our existing equipment and production lines or to invest in new equipment as part of an expansion strategy. Our goal is to begin supplying cells from the overseas facility to our major customers by 2026. Encouragingly, these customers have already expressed strong interest in placing substantial orders, accompanied by a higher percentage of prepayments. We are currently in the process of finalizing terms with them. Further information will be disclosed once formal agreements are reached. In summary, the underwhelming financial performance of Hitrans has impacted our consolidated results, making them less favorable compared to those of our battery segment.

However, we successfully achieved higher gross profits and a positive net income despite lower net revenues. Additionally, we are actively pursuing the establishment of overseas production capacity to meet the demands of our major customers, who have expressed interest in placing substantial orders under favorable terms. We remain optimistic and look forward to sharing more positive developments in coming months. Thank you. We will now open the floor for the Q&A section. Operator, please go ahead.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. You would enter the automated message advising your hand raise. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. We will now take our first question from the line of Brian Lantier from Zacks. Please ask your question, Brian.

Brian Lantier (Senior Research Analyst)

Good evening. Thank you for all that color. It's really interesting to see the progress and have a vision for where the company will be 24 months from now. I appreciate that. I guess as you're getting ready to expand the product lines, what are you seeing as you're speaking to equipment suppliers in the market? Are you getting any better pricing on some of the equipment that could be coming in? Do you think that could ultimately lead to maybe faster implementation of some of these production lines, given some of the challenges that exist in the battery market today?

Thank you, Brian. I will translate your question to our team. Brian, when he just said [Foreign language]? Sorry, I mute myself. I'm sorry, Brian. Let me directly respond to your question in English.

Zhiguang Hu (CEO)

I would say for our expansion plan in Nanjing domestically, for the terms and the pricing we get from the suppliers, it's almost the same as that for our competitors. Certainly, we get much more favorable terms with respect to the payment condition and the payment schedule. They allow us to delay a great portion of the payments much later than our competitors can get. We have already completed the first prepayments, and certain equipment has already been sent to our Nanjing. As I just discussed in our prepared remarks, we are still assessing if we are going to relocate part of this equipment to our overseas factory or we're just going to simply invest in new equipment. That has not yet been determined. I think I already answered your question.

Brian Lantier (Senior Research Analyst)

Great. Thank you. You have customers around the globe.

Are you hearing anything from them regarding concerns about the global economy?

Zhiguang Hu (CEO)

We do not hear. Please, Yu Wen, please.

[Foreign language]？

[Foreign language]. Okay. We do not hear any specific concerns about the global economy from our customers, but we do feel the concerns on the potential and current existing geopolitical risk. Actually, as we just disclosed, we are actually being pushed by our major customers to set up an overseas factory in order to avoid the existing tariffs. We also hear the concerns from our major customers about their decline of sales in their end applications caused by the decline of the economy. In general, we are still very positive about the future of the new energy industry, especially in Europe and in the United States, a huge potential to replace existing units. I think the concern is more placed on the tariffs and geopolitical risks.

Brian Lantier (Senior Research Analyst)

Great. Lastly, on Hitrans, obviously, it's a difficult market right now. Are you still exploring any possible divestiture of that business?

[Foreign language].

Zhiguang Hu (CEO)

As we have already expressed, Hitrans industry, the industry Hitrans within is now experiencing a downturn. We would not extend any new investments in Hitrans. Okay.

Brian Lantier (Senior Research Analyst)

All right. Thank you. I'll let someone else go.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad. Once again, that's star one one for questions.

Jiewei Li (CFO)

Sorry, I had just dropped the line.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, Mr. Jiewei Li. We are still waiting for questions. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. I see no more questions in the queue. Let me turn the call back to Jason for closing remarks.

Zhiguang Hu (CEO)

Thank you, Operator.

Thank you all for participating in today's call and for your support. We appreciate your interest and look forward to reporting to you again next quarter on our program.

Operator (participant)

Thank you all again. This concludes the call. You may now disconnect.