In the competitive battery market, Ruipu Lanjun is a typical emerging company. In October
2017, Ruipu Lanjun was established. In the middle of 2020, the monthly shipment volume was 100MWh, entering the top ten in the industry. In 2021, it entered the top three of energy storage battery shipments. In 2022, it became the top 3 of energy storage battery shipments.
This is a short period of three or four years, which is the changing period of the battery industry.
In 2019, it is the eve of the third round of production cycle of lithium power industry. After the decline of subsidies for new energy vehicles, the capital chain of lithium power companies is still being impacted in a large area and falling into a downward trend.
Until 2020, the annual sales of new energy vehicles increased from 3 million to 10 million in 2022, and the demand for energy storage increased in 2022. The lithium power industry is surging forward, and only large companies with strong capital and carrying the cycle are left on the table.
On the one hand, the market demand broke out sharply, on the other hand, the scale of production capacity expanded rapidly to excess, in which it maintained its strength and made achievements, making Ruipu Lanjun a rare "survival" sample. The success
of Ruipu Lanjun is inseparable from the green hills, and it does not stop at the green hills.
In 2017, Xiang Guangda, chairman of Qingshan Group, invited Cao Hui, chief engineer of Shanghai Aerospace Power Supply Technology, to start a business as chairman and president of Ruipu Energy (the predecessor of Ruipu Lanjun). In June 2023, Ruipu Lanjun again submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and if successfully listed, it will be the first IPO of "Nickel King" in the capital market.
In 2019, Yi Huiqiong, general manager of Ruipu Lanjun Energy Storage Division, was sent to Shenzhen to find an office to set up a team. "I was the only resident employee at that time." In Shenzhen, the birthplace of lithium batteries, Yi Huiqiong saw the booming export of lithium batteries, and intuitively judged that the explosion of overseas energy storage batteries would far exceed that of domestic batteries.
Since then, Yi Huiqiong has made every effort to develop the energy storage market, aiming at household energy storage and large-scale energy storage.
At the beginning, Ruipu Lanjun went to sea through domestic energy storage companies and developed products with downstream customers. At the same time, it also relies on Qingshan Group's Morowali Industrial Park (118MWh) and Weidabei Industrial Park (55MWh) in Indonesia to test the large-capacity energy storage core products of the isolated network system. The scale of Indonesian projects is very rare in the world in 2018, and no one knows what products the market needs.
This gradually enabled Ruipu Lanjun to develop products with a large number of customer applications in a blank market very early, thus occupying a place.
"The earliest 50Ah battery used in home storage came from the demand of a domestic home storage company, and Ruipu Lanjun was able to understand the needs of the European market, such as the need for long cycle life of batteries, good performance in low temperature environment in Europe, and its application in high voltage systems." Yi Huiqiong told the new energy industry. The latecomers
aiming at household energy storage also take the specification of 50Ah as the standard, and large energy storage customers such as Sunshine Power also pay attention to the energy storage batteries of Indonesian projects.
However, although it is a new blue ocean, it is not easy to open up the market. Because of the strong B-end attributes in the early market of energy storage, the product quality and channel capability of battery factories are extremely required. In the first half of
2023, Ruipu Lanjun successively announced cooperation with customers in overseas markets such as the United States and Indonesia, which is the result of years of polishing. "An overseas customer, from the first contact to the formal supply, has gone through two years and more than ten rounds of verification back and forth." Yi Huiqiong said.
Power batteries and energy storage batteries go hand in hand, and products of the same type on both sides can share the same production line. When the power battery market is weak, energy storage batteries can make up for it. This has kept the capacity utilization rate of Ruipu Lanjun at a high level.
New product research and development is also speeding up. Last August, Ruipu Lanjun officially announced the top battery technology. In May this year, 320Ah and 340Ah large-capacity batteries were officially released. At the end of July, the 320Ah battery core has been sent for sample testing, with excellent test data, and will be mass-produced in October.
This means that Ruipu Lanjun will also be the fastest enterprise to mass-produce large-capacity batteries. Large capacity battery core is regarded as the next bridgehead for energy storage battery manufacturers to compete. In
six years, how did Ruipu Lanjun break through the tight encirclement? How to seize the emerging energy storage battery market?
Yi Huiqiong, graduated from Central South University, has been working in the field of new energy for more than 10 years, and has a lot of experience in energy storage sales and integrated marketing.
01
Carve cost reduction into the bone
Editor's Note: The core competitiveness of the manufacturing industry is cost reduction, because an industry is maturing. The symbol is that the industrial chain has turned laboratory products into products that can be consumed by the public through extreme cost reduction. Battery cost accounts for 60% of the cost of energy storage system and 40% of the cost of new energy vehicles, which is undoubtedly the biggest reduction. The sudden emergence
of Ruipu Lanjun spares no effort to reduce manufacturing costs, including the combination of dynamic storage to improve capacity utilization, stainless steel manufacturing mode to achieve scale effect and so on.
New energy industrialist: The strategy of Ruipu Lanjun is the parallel of power battery and energy storage. How to understand this strategy? Some battery models can be used in energy storage or power batteries. Although the products are different, the production lines behind them are the same. The combination of
dynamic storage can face market fluctuations more flexibly, for example, when the power battery market fluctuates, Ruipu Lanjun can still use the production line by relying on the energy storage market. In 2021 and 2022, the capacity utilization rate of Ruipu Lanjun Wenzhou Base will be 86.4% and 78% respectively.
New energy industry experts: This is very important in the competitive environment.
Yi Huiqiong: Yes, inventory is also a cost item. Low turnover rate is a disguised way to raise costs.
New Energy Industrialists: How Do You Reduce Costs? Ruipu Lanjun follows the stainless steel manufacturing mode of Qingshan Group to achieve scale effect.
Mass manufacturing allows the cost of batteries to be greatly reduced to cope with the difficult competition. On 300 mu of land, we have achieved 26 GWh of production capacity, usually lithium battery production to reach 20 GWh, the average land required is about 500 mu. New energy industry: Since the first half of this year, overseas household storage dealers have a trend of pressing goods. What has Ruipu Lanjun done to advance the layout? Eat the most difficult overseas market Editor's Note: In the energy storage industry, the wind in the overseas market started before the domestic market. With the aging of power grid facilities, the instability of household power supply and the strong stimulation of policy subsidies, the overseas energy storage market accounts for two-thirds of the total market and is more economical. The overseas market is developed, but the competition is the localization ability. Those who occupy the overseas market are distributors or contractors who have cultivated the local market for many years. For example, Sonnen in the field of household storage, Powin and Tesla in the field of large storage. Since 2018, Ruipu Lanjun has broken the overseas market from energy storage, and its strategy is to lock in big customers. New Energy Industrialist: How Did Ruipu Lanjun's Energy Storage Business Start? When it was founded, I was the only one in the resident team. It can be said that the layout of energy storage business is "forced"-there are only a handful of big power customers, and most of them are still in the verification stage. The energy storage market is also very scattered, and there are not even mass-produced products when the business starts, so we can only cast a wide net and accumulate a customer base. New Energy Industrialists: Why Shenzhen? So Ruipu Lanjun aims at two areas, household energy storage and large-scale energy storage. New Energy Industrialists: How to Open up New Markets? At that time, a Zhejiang enterprise, Arrow Energy, came to raise demand, and Ruipu Lanjun directionally developed 50Ah batteries, relying on this product, successfully entered the European market. The first customer of large-scale energy storage is Sunshine Power Supply, which is very interested in the application of Ruipu Lanjun 280Ah battery in Indonesia project. At that time, the scale of energy storage projects in two industrial parks of Qingshan Group in Indonesia was rare in the world. We have also reduced the battery rate for the solar power supply and increased the cycle life to 9000 times. It will be used in batches in early 2021. New energy industrialist: So before Ruipu Lanjun tilted to the energy storage business in 2021, you also accumulated for a long time. Yi Huiqiong: Yes, there is no success without reason. When it first entered the home storage market in 2019, it could only ship hundreds of sets a month, but Ruipu Lanjun has been able to ship tens of thousands of sets a month. After entering the large-scale energy storage market and cooperating with Sunshine Power, we began to understand that the foreign power grid system is similar to that in China, and we also need to contact large-scale owners or investors. Unable to participate in the exhibition in 2021 due to the epidemic, Ruipu Lanjun relied on part of the foundation laid by Qingshan Group, and the sales team gradually entered the short list of major overseas customers (core suppliers), and took advantage of the situation to enter Europe, North America and Australia. In the first half of this year, Ruipu Lanjun also reached cooperation agreements with Powin and Energy Vault in the United States, with a total supply of 13 GWh. New Energy Industrialist: How do you judge the prospects of each market? The United States and China are the two core markets for large-scale energy storage, because the power infrastructure in the United States is relatively old and has not changed much in 100 years, and energy storage is just needed. After entering home storage and large-scale energy storage, it is easy to enter industrial and commercial energy storage, because the scale of industrial and commercial energy storage is in the middle of the two. New Energy Industrialist: What Are the Characteristics of Overseas Markets? The evaluation dimension focuses on the hard power of the company, rather than simply "cheap". Although we can join big customers to enter some projects together, we still need to be recognized by the terminal owners. New Energy Industrialists: How Strict? After the epidemic is released, their team will fly to China to inspect the factory. If they fail to pass the audit, they will be rectified until they are satisfied. New Energy Industrialist: But the cooperation negotiated in this way is also long-term. Yi Huiqiong: Yes. Overseas customers will not easily change suppliers, their logic is: it does not matter if there is a problem, it is OK to be able to change quickly. Of course, if you have the basic hardware requirements, the customer will really cooperate with you one by one. 03 Basically every product is explosive Editor's Note: Batteries are in the upstream of the industrial chain, and the traditional impression is that they are unknown manufacturing factories. But because the cost of batteries in the whole vehicle or energy storage products accounts for more than 40%, or even 60%. Downstream brands also regard battery performance and technology as their core selling points. The battery factory has become the "star role" of the industry. The breakthrough of Ruipu Lanjun is also inseparable from the creation of explosive products. From SCL die-cutting technology, top-asking battery technology to large-capacity batteries, the logic of Ruipu Lanjun's R & D products lies in tightly binding with customers and using demand to push back R & D. New Energy Industrialist: How Does Ruipu Lanjun Formulate the R & D Route of Products? Because we are more pragmatic, the products we launch are closely related to the needs of the market or customers. Front-end R & D may explore some more cutting-edge technologies and wait for better opportunities for product applications. New Energy Industrialists: Why can We Be Closer to the Market? For example, the first 50Ah household storage battery. At that time, there were few models available for reference in the market, and most of the energy storage was mainly cylindrical or small soft packages. Arrow Energy requires a long cycle life, good performance at low temperatures in Europe, and can be used in high pressure systems. We developed this battery directionally. So in order to reduce costs, improve performance, and keep the size unchanged, many people have done the route of improving the compaction density of batteries. Starting from the structure, Ruipu Lanjun introduced the top technology to achieve the highest volume energy density in the industry under the same size. New energy industrialist: Ruipu Lanjun 320Ah and 340Ah batteries will go on sale. How long has it taken for these two products to be launched? What are the difficulties in the research and development of large-capacity batteries? Top technology was officially announced at the end of August last year, and two large-capacity batteries were officially launched in May this year, and then samples were delivered at the end of July. The landing time was very fast. However, it has been investing in the early stage to overcome the problem of energy density of standard products. of 2004 , it reached the third place in the industry in five years, but the industry's more evaluation of Ruipu Lanjun is that it is a "very stable" company. It is not the first to make batteries, but all of them are popular and have a good reputation in the industry.It is not the first to cut energy storage, but it has won the core customers early and steadily. It is not the first to do overseas, but the way of playing is clear, and the proportion of overseas is increasing rapidly. The enterprise's strategic path is clear, the pace of business development is restrained, and the success rate is high, resulting in a "sense of stability" like a sweeping monk. Further exploration, in the process of communication, we feel the restraint of Ruipu Lanjun on every step of expansion. Behind restraint is respect for the laws of the industry and respect for common sense. After all, power battery is an industry with strong manufacturing attributes, and cost is the most important competitiveness. Every percentage point of gross profit and every cost should "dig out" profits from all aspects of product development, production and manufacturing to marketing. Relying on Qingshan Group, Ruipu Lanjun introduced the concept of large-scale stainless steel manufacturing to maximize the scale effect and improve efficiency and yield, which is the key factor for its sustained growth. No matter the poor father or the rich father, even the rich second generation with a silver spoon in their mouth, the rolled battery market ultimately depends on product strength to speak, so finding out the market demand and repeatedly accepting the most stringent customer criticism process has become the only way that can not be bypassed. This kind of restraint and awe is not unrelated to the consistent and steady strategic strength of Qingshan Group. What is the advantage of having a rich dad who has gone through the economic and industrial cycle? It is the "family learning" in exchange for these real money. Start-ups are like people growing up, and some tuition fees don't have to be paid in adolescence. However, for Ruipu Lanjun, this does not necessarily guarantee success. In the chaotic energy storage battery market and the power battery market surrounded by big men, Ruipu Lanjun has the characteristics of a start-up company in market development-the tenacity of "dead knock" customers, pushing back research and development with customer needs, and putting the human efficiency ratio in the first place, which makes Ruipu Lanjun surpass in the new niche market. As Yi Huiqiong said, "The right time and the right place are available, and Ruipu Lanjun relies on this strength to fill the last piece of the puzzle." There are complex thoughts in the seemingly simple strategy, and there are brilliant details in the plain story. Castle Peak is the beginning, but not the end.
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