Global fourth place!

As the first-half rankings for power battery and energy storage battery shipments are announced, CALB is launching an assault on the "global third" position.

Recently, a related-party transaction announcement from CALB (03931.HK) has attracted attention.

The company announced that due to rapid business development and expansion plan requirements, the board of directors has entered into "Supplementary Agreement II to the 2024-2026 Engineering Construction Framework Agreement," deciding to substantially increase the annual engineering payment caps with Jiangsu Chengdong Construction for 2025-2026. The limits for 2025 and 2026 will be raised from the original 70 million yuan to 250 million yuan and 460 million yuan respectively, representing increases of 257% and 557%.

As of August 2025, actual engineering expenditures have reached 61.66 million yuan, approaching the original limit, highlighting that the existing quota cannot meet actual construction needs.

CALB simultaneously stated that this adjustment is mainly based on the following considerations: the company plans to launch construction of multiple large-scale production lines in 2025-2026, with individual projects involving huge amounts, and engineering bidding results contain uncertainties. If the original limits were maintained, once actual expenditures approach or exceed the limits, frequent revisions of related-party transaction quotas would be required. Such revision procedures typically take over 30 days, far exceeding the 30-day contract signing deadline after winning bids as stipulated by relevant regulations, potentially causing project delays.

In fact, signs of tight related-party transaction quotas have already emerged. Actual expenses in 2023 were 130 million yuan; actual expenditure in 2024 was 383 million yuan, though not breaking the 400 million yuan cap for that year, it was already approaching saturation.

The announcement disclosed that Jiangsu Chengdong Construction is a non-wholly owned subsidiary of Jintan Holdings (holding 26.02%, affiliated with Changzhou Jintan District Government), a major shareholder of CALB, and has long been responsible for design, procurement, and construction contracting of CALB's industrial parks and buildings.

This shows that the company's substantial quota increase aims to provide sufficient execution flexibility for major capacity construction projects in the next two years, avoiding delays in overall expansion pace due to approval process delays.

Behind this move is CALB's "full-speed sprint" in the energy storage track.

"This year we formulated a strategic plan to enter the global top three," CALB Chairman Liu Jingyu revealed in a recent interview, "If this year's shipment volume can break through 100GWh, I believe CALB can officially enter the global first tier."

In the first half of 2025, CALB's power battery and energy storage battery shipments both ranked fourth globally. Although the gap with the global third is continuously narrowing, compared with CATL and BYD, there remains an insurmountable chasm in market share.

This also means that Liu Jingyu's "first tier" goal still needs to overcome numerous challenges.

**01 Energy Storage Becomes "First Engine"**

CALB is currently undergoing a profound transformation led by Liu Jingyu: from the past "power battery going solo" to "power + energy storage" dual-wheel drive.

To understand CALB's growth logic, one cannot bypass the development trajectory of its two key transformations.

The company's predecessor was AVIC Lithium Battery (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd., established in 2015 jointly by Jintan District Government and Aviation Industry Corporation, focusing on lithium iron phosphate battery R&D and production, mainly targeting commercial vehicles and energy storage.

The real turning point began in 2018 when Liu Jingyu took over as chairman during a crisis. At that time, the company was in a survival crisis, having suffered massive losses exceeding 1 billion yuan for two consecutive years.

Faced with difficulties, this "new leader" decisively pressed the strategic restart button, shifting the strategic direction from the commercial vehicle track to the passenger car power battery market, precisely catching the industry boom of new energy vehicles.

In just three years, she led the enterprise to complete a "comeback against the wind": in 2021, CALB's power battery installation volume jumped to the domestic top three and global seventh, becoming a "counterattack example" in the lithium battery industry.

Also in 2021, CALB keenly captured the growth potential of the energy storage market, formally incorporating it into the core business map, and leveraging technology and capacity advantages accumulated in the power battery field to quickly enter the energy storage track, growing into an industry "dark horse," laying the foundation for subsequent "power + energy storage" dual-wheel drive.

The release of the first half 2025 financial report is the most intuitive footnote to this strategic transformation.

Data shows that energy storage system revenue reached 5.757 billion yuan during the period, surging 109.7% year-on-year, with revenue proportion jumping to 35.1%; profit for the same period was 753 million yuan (+80.4%), net profit attributable to shareholders was 470 million yuan (+169.3%), and gross margin improved to 17.5%.

In the first half of this year, CALB's combined power and energy storage business shipped approximately 43GWh. Breaking it down, energy storage and power battery shipments were essentially balanced: energy storage batteries approximately 21GWh (48% share), power batteries approximately 22GWh (52% share).

For full year 2024, the company's power battery sales revenue decreased from 22.249 billion yuan in 2023 to 19.551 billion yuan, down 12.1% year-on-year, with its share of total revenue significantly declining from 82.4% to 70.4%. Meanwhile, energy storage system business grew strongly by 72.4%, becoming the main growth engine.

Behind this data is Liu Jingyu's precise control of "dual-wheel balance" - neither abandoning the fundamental power battery market nor missing the explosive window of energy storage.

Although CALB's battery average prices continue to decline, compared to 2024, in the first half of 2025 power battery prices fell from 0.55 yuan/Wh to 0.46 yuan/Wh, a 16% drop; energy storage battery prices fell from 0.34 yuan/Wh to 0.27 yuan/Wh, a 20% drop, CALB successfully offset price pressure through "scale effects + cost control": raw material price reductions for lithium carbonate, nickel, etc., combined with cost amortization of 314Ah cells, ultimately achieving counter-trend gross margin improvement.

Its energy storage business surge mainly benefited from CALB's deep integration with Sungrow and CRRC Zhuzhou Institute, becoming the main cell supplier for energy storage systems like PowerTitan2.0.

Leveraging the 15% price advantage of 314Ah cells compared to CATL, CALB successfully secured overseas mega orders including 7.8GWh in Saudi Arabia, 4.4GWh in the UK, 1GWh in Chile, and 153MW/612MWh in South Africa, with Saudi Arabia and UK orders being the largest globally and largest in Europe for 2024, earning Sungrow's highest "Global Strategic Partner" award.

According to Guosen Securities estimates, CALB's energy storage battery shipments in 2024 were approximately 25GWh, compared to 4GWh in 2023, a massive 525% year-on-year growth; among these, just the Saudi Arabia and UK mega orders contributed nearly half the shipment volume, directly driving its global energy storage ranking to achieve "rocket-style" leap - successfully jumping from the tail of the global energy storage first tier to fifth place.

As of the first half of 2025, CALB's on-hand utility-scale energy storage orders have exceeded 10GWh, with energy storage business officially upgrading from "second curve" to "first engine."

But Liu Jingyu's ambitions don't stop there: since this year, CALB has continuously planned four major bases covering Changzhou Jiangsu, Chengdu Sichuan, Xiamen Fujian, and Portugal Europe, adding over 75GWh of new energy storage and power battery capacity, with Chengdu base phase II investing 12 billion yuan and 30GWh capacity expected to begin production in Q2 2026.

In 2025, the company's total capacity target reaches 500GWh, with planned capacity as high as 1TWh by 2030. Energy storage shipments in 2025 target 45GWh; it has even revised up its 2026 overall shipment guidance by nearly 20% to 180GWh, with energy storage shipments planned to increase to 70-80GWh.

Market position advancement is direct feedback of strategic effectiveness.

InfoLink data shows CALB's global energy storage cell shipment ranking rose from 10th place in 2023 to 5th in 2024, 3rd in Q1 2025, and stable 4th in the first half of 2025.

In the utility-scale storage segment, in the first half of 2025, CALB tied with EVE Energy for third place, closely chasing CATL and HiTHIUM, with competition among second to fifth places in a tight race.

But challenges are equally severe, as CALB's power battery business growth momentum has clearly slowed.

From January to August 2025, CALB's installation volume in the Chinese market was 29.7GWh with a 7.0% market share, still ranking third; global installation volume in the first half was 21.8GWh, corresponding to a market share slightly declining to 4.3%, with growth rate at the bottom among global TOP10 Chinese manufacturers.

Its passenger car market customers include Chang'an, GAC, Geely, XPeng, Dongfeng, NIO, Wuling, Leapmotor, Mercedes Smart, Toyota, Hyundai, Audi, BAIC, among others, with Chang'an and GAC as first-tier suppliers; commercial vehicle customers include Golden Dragon, Chery, Yutong, Ruichi New Energy. In the first half of 2025, it added 230 new supporting vehicle models.

How to balance "energy storage sprint" and "power stability" has become a puzzle Liu Jingyu must solve.

**02 Large Cell "Life-or-Death Gamble"**

Behind the impressive energy storage data is the increasingly fierce "price war" in the lithium battery industry.

From 2023 to now, domestic energy storage system winning bid average prices have plunged cliff-like from around 1.5 yuan/Wh to below 0.5 yuan/Wh, with cell prices being "halved and halved again."

Under pressure from giants like CATL and BYD, second-tier enterprises generally fall into the predicament of "thinner margins with more sales," and CALB is no exception: its energy storage revenue growth (109.7%) far exceeds profit growth, with price decline erosion effects already apparent.

As "first among the second tier," CALB must win the race of 'cost reduction > price reduction,' otherwise it will be difficult to escape the vicious cycle of profit pressure.

Faced with difficulties, Liu Jingyu chose a high-risk, high-return breakthrough path: betting on ultra-large capacity cells, adopting a "tiered combat" strategy.

That is: fully outputting 314Ah and 392Ah on one hand, while betting on 588Ah, 625Ah, 640Ah, and even 688Ah multi-model cells on the other, to meet different customer and scenario needs.

CALB's 314Ah energy storage cells have achieved large-scale batch stable delivery, while 392Ah cells based on direct iteration compatibility from 314Ah production lines have also quickly opened the market.

At the ESIE 2025 exhibition in April this year, when CALB announced mass production of 392Ah cells, it simultaneously signed supply agreements for these cells and supporting 6.25MWh liquid-cooled energy storage systems with multiple industry leaders including China Energy Engineering Storage, Xiamen ITG, New Power Energy Storage, Goldwind Zero Carbon, and Windey Energy.

In September, the company's 588Ah cells and 600+Ah cell new products debuted together at the North American RE+ exhibition, both planned for mass production in Q4 2025, with the former deliberately differentiated from CATL's 587Ah route by 1Ah.

By directly addressing customers' core demand for "economics," CALB attempts to carve out territory from the "red ocean" of homogeneous competition.

So far, the large cell track is more crowded than imagined, having differentiated into two major camps:

The 500Ah+ wound cell camp represented by CATL, Envision AESC, and HiTHIUM; and the 600Ah+ stacked cell camp led by system integrators.

In the second major camp, CRRC Zhuzhou Institute united with CALB, Sunwoda and other battery manufacturers to launch the 688Ah alliance standard, while Sungrow established 684Ah stacked cells as the next-generation preferred solution.

But the "risk" of the large cell track far exceeds expectations.

First is the time window disadvantage. Envision AESC, CATL, HiTHIUM, Chuneng New Energy and other companies have already taken the lead in achieving mass production of 500Ah+ cells.

EVE Energy laid out earlier, positioning in the 600+Ah track two years in advance. Sunwoda just announced in September this year that its 684Ah production line officially began production, exclusively supplying Sungrow, promoting it to next-generation core cell supplier.

In comparison, CALB's 588Ah and 600Ah+ cells won't be mass-produced until the end of 2025, lacking first-mover advantage.

Its 600+Ah cell specific model has not been clearly disclosed so far. From public parameters - 15,000 cycle life, 430Wh/L energy density, supporting 6.9MWh 20-foot energy storage systems - it's closer to the 688Ah standard led by CRRC Zhuzhou Institute, rather than Sungrow's promoted 684Ah solution.

This choice may reflect its subtle strategic focus adjustment between the two major customer camps.

More severe is still the "overcapacity" mountain. Global energy storage capacity utilization rate in 2024 was less than 50%, and global energy storage cell planned capacity in 2025 far exceeds actual demand by more than 4 times, with price wars continuing.

Against this backdrop, CALB's planned 75GWh new capacity could be either an "offensive sword" or become "digestive pressure."

Despite numerous risks, Liu Jingyu continues to advance "diversified hedging": beyond Sungrow, actively expanding energy storage system integrators like CRRC Zhuzhou Institute, as well as wind and solar top customers, and deeply binding with the 'Big Five and Little Six' power groups, establishing deep long-term strategic cooperation with energy state-owned enterprises including State Grid, China Southern Power Grid, SPIC, China Nuclear Energy, China Energy Engineering, Huaneng, China National Electric Apparatus Group, Datang Group, China Resources Power, Three Gorges Group, and CGN.

Meanwhile, CALB is also accelerating global layout, with Portugal base breaking ground in Q1 2025, expected delivery in 2027, with planned capacity of 45GWh; Thailand factory achieved batch production delivery in 2024, covering ASEAN markets.

Policy also brings favorable winds. The "New Energy Storage Large-Scale Construction Special Action Plan (2025-2027)" jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and National Energy Administration clearly states that by 2027, national new energy storage installation will exceed 180 million kW, driving direct investment of approximately 250 billion yuan.

This provides unprecedented opportunities for energy storage breakthroughs for all players including CALB.

However, the encirclement of global lithium battery giants, continued price wars, and uncertainties in large cell technology still make this breakthrough battle full of variables.

For CALB, this is not only a market gamble, but also a strategic expedition concerning corporate survival.