Lithium company performance divergence: "The two giants of lithium batteries" doubled their net profit last year, Shengxin Lithium Energy is still losing money

Interface News Reporter | Gao Jing

Last year, the overall performance of lithium companies generally improved.

According to incomplete statistics by Interface News, among the seven lithium mining and lithium salt companies that have released their annual reports to date, five reported year-on-year growth in net profit. Among them, known as the “Dual Titans of the Lithium Industry,” Ganfeng Lithium (002460.SZ) and Tianqi Lithium (002466.SZ) both saw net profit growth rates exceeding 100%, both turning losses into profits.

Charted by: Gao Jing

Last year, Ganfeng Lithium posted a net profit of 1.613 billion yuan, up 177.77% year on year; Tianqi’s net profit grew 105.85% year on year to 463 million yuan.

In 2025, global lithium prices showed a pattern of initially falling, then rising, and then experiencing year-end volatility and a rebound.

In the first half of the year, supply conditions on the supply side remained loose. Jiangxi mica mines maintained full production. Increased returns of overseas lithium mines and carbonates lithium carbonate prices continued to fall, reaching a historic low of 59,000 yuan/ton at one point by mid-year.

In the second half, the situation began to reverse. Supply-side disruptions such as the industry’s “anti-involution” and issues with Jiangxi’s mineral rights certificates occurred frequently. Coupled with the concentrated release of energy storage demand, lithium prices gradually stabilized and rebounded. By year-end, the price of the main lithium carbonate futures contract reached around 120,000 yuan/ton.

Image source: Ganfeng Lithium annual report

Ganfeng Lithium said that, under the influence of changes in the supply-demand landscape and fluctuations in the lithium product market, lithium product prices, after falling continuously and hitting a new low in the first half of the year, rebounded strongly—improving the company’s operating performance on a year-on-year basis.

Tianqi Lithium, meanwhile, stated that due to fluctuations in the lithium product market, last year the company’s selling prices for lithium products fell compared with the same period of the previous year. However, thanks to the significantly weakened impact of pricing-cycle mismatches, a substantial year-on-year increase in the performance of its important associate SQM, and the continued strengthening of the Australian dollar, its performance improved.

However, upon further analysis, the seemingly strong turnaround in the performances of Ganfeng Lithium and Tianqi Lithium is in fact supported by non-recurring gains and external investment income. The true quality of profitability still needs to be examined.

According to the financial report, after excluding non-recurring gains and losses, Ganfeng Lithium posted a net loss of 385 million yuan last year. Its non-recurring income includes gains from disposing of part of the equity in Shenzhen Yichu and gains from equity-method investments, as well as fair value gains resulting from the increase in the PLS share price of financial assets, among others.

Tianqi Lithium’s substantial turnaround was based on investment income of 665 million yuan contributed by its associate SQM. The company’s main sources of revenue—its lithium mines and lithium chemical compounds and derivatives business—both saw declines in revenue last year.

From this, it can be seen that, although lithium product prices rebounded somewhat in the second half of last year, the “Dual Titans of Lithium” still have not fully escaped the impact of increased product volume alongside falling prices.

The same is true for Shengxin Lithium Energy (002240.SZ) and Tanhua New Energy (300390.SZ).

Shengxin Lithium Energy is the only loss-making company among those included in this round of statistics. The company had a loss of 888 million yuan in 2025, expanding 42.87% compared with the loss amount in the previous year.

Shengxin Lithium Energy said that in 2025, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was 75,500 yuan/ton, down 16.54% from the average price of the previous year.

“Because the market’s significant recovery was concentrated at the end of the year, the sustained low-price environment in the first half created substantial pressure on full-year production and operations and on performance,” Shengxin Lithium Energy said.

Meanwhile, Tanhua New Energy’s net profit fell 51.77% to 402 million yuan. The company pointed out that the continued improvement in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles and the rapid development of the energy storage industry have driven sustained growth in lithium resource demand, and they have also attracted a large amount of capital into the new energy lithium battery materials industry; new production capacity has been gradually released, and competition in the industry has become increasingly intense.

Salt Lake Co. (000792.SZ) and Zangge Mining (000408.SZ) both saw relatively large increases in net profits last year. The former recorded a net profit of 8.476 billion yuan, up 81.76% year on year; the latter’s net profit reached 3.852 billion yuan, up 49.32% year on year.

Both companies share a common characteristic: their main sources of revenue are not lithium products.

Salt Lake Co.’s main revenue source is potash products, contributing 77.61% of its revenue. Zangge Mining’s main source of revenue is potassium chloride, with this business segment accounting for 82.45% of total revenue.

In both companies, the revenue share from lithium products is below 20%, so its impact on overall revenue is limited. Moreover, both companies’ lithium product revenue also declined year on year.

Rongjie Co. (002192.SZ)’s main products are lithium concentrate, battery-grade lithium salts, and lithium battery equipment. A large increase in the production volume and sales volume of lithium concentrate is one of the main reasons for the company’s year-on-year increase in operating revenue and profit.

Rongjie Co.’s lithium concentrate products generated revenue of 767 million yuan last year, up 92.54% from the same period last year, accounting for 91.25% of the company’s revenue.

This business segment’s gross profit margin is as high as 53.12%, mainly because Rongjie’s lithium concentrate’s main raw material, spodumene ore, is fully self-supplied from its own mines. After being produced through mining and beneficiation processes, lithium concentrate is obtained—giving the company stronger cost control.

Tianqi Lithium’s lithium concentrate production mainly comes from its Greenbushes spodumene mine in Australia, which is mined and processed by its controlling subsidiary Talison to produce lithium concentrate. Therefore, the company’s gross profit margin for its lithium mine products is also as high as 52.88%.

Since 2026, the rise in lithium prices has expanded. According to the latest data from Shanghai Metals Market, on April 1, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was 161,400 yuan/ton, nearly 40% higher than at the beginning of the year.

A CITIC Securities research report pointed out that since this year began, the pace of overseas lithium mines resumption has accelerated, and supply growth on the resource side may speed up in 2026. But compared with explosive growth on the demand side, the supply response is still weak. The high levels of battery demand and the continued decline in inventory across the industrial chain are expected to continue supporting lithium prices.

In addition, CITIC Securities noted that positive signals are appearing frequently in the industry—such as fixed-floor-price purchase agreements, lithium concentrate auctions, and sales of low-grade lithium mineral products—validating the industry chain’s confidence in lithium prices going forward. “We maintain our 2026 lithium price forecast range of 120,000 to 200,000 yuan/ton, and we recommend paying attention to upward price risks caused by additional supply disruptions.”

An unnamed analyst told Interface News that under the current Middle East conflict situation, lithium batteries will directly benefit: “With expensive oil, people are more willing to buy electric cars; at the same time, global energy diversification is leading to a continuous inflow of energy storage orders.”

Against the backdrop of the lithium industry gradually moving out of the bottom, whether each company can truly internalize external favorable factors into profitability remains to be tested over time.