In the power bank crisis, the biggest winner is actually this Japanese sensor giant!

Recently, the power bank crisis has intensified, and the biggest winner is Japan's world-famous sensor giant! Since early June, many universities in Beijing have banned Roma power banks, and the incident has directly rushed to the hot search and become the focus of attention of netizens and media. On June 14, Romas officially issued a statement saying that it was communicating with the Beijing Municipal Education Commission and other relevant departments, and believed that "relevant information is biased in dissemination, leading to misunderstandings among the public." ”。 However, only two days later, it was "slapped in the face", and on June 16, Romaz issued a recall plan through the Shenzhen Municipal Supervision Bureau, recalling 3 models manufactured between June 5, 2023 and July 31, 2024, with a total of 491745 power bank products. On June 20, another domestic power bank giant, Anker Innovation, whose power bank products were known for being used by US President Trump in public, issued a recall statement, saying that some batches of products had potential safety hazards, and launched a recall of more than 710,000 products in 7 models. Anker Innovation's overseas business revenue exceeds that of China, and at the same time, it has also launched a large-scale recall of problematic products overseas. On June 26, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued a sudden notice that from June 28, passengers are prohibited from carrying power banks without 3C marks, unclear 3C marks, and recalled models or batches to take domestic flights. So far, the power bank trust crisis has evolved into a social event hotly discussed by the whole people and is related to the safety of people's travel. What is the problem? From the recall announcement of Romas and Anker Innovation, both pointed to the core of the problem of the recalled products directly to the battery cells, Anker Innovation said in the announcement: "Due to the recent discovery of the industry-wide battery cells used in some basic mobile power products, a very small number of products may fail the diaphragm insulation when used for a long time, and there are potential safety hazards that cause the product to overheat or even burn." It can be seen that the battery cells used in some batches of power banks will have insulation failure after long-term use of the separator material - so that the positive and negative electrode materials inside the battery cells are prone to chemical reactions, resulting in heat and even explosion. Many reports suggest that the replacement of this separator material may be directly related to the cost demand of constant compression.

Although the announcement of Romaz and Anker Innovation did not indicate which supplier these cells came from. However, with the continuous follow-up, dismantling and excavation of many media, it was found that these battery cells were all from the same manufacturer - Ampris. Ampris is an enterprise jointly funded by Amprius in 2014 and Wuxi Industrial Development Group Co., Ltd., and is currently the largest supplier of pouch batteries in the field of power banks in China. According to the official website of the Wuxi State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, from October 2016 to July 2023, the cumulative number of lithium batteries produced by Ampris has exceeded 100 million. At present, the 3C certification related to power banks of many companies such as Ampris, Romas, and Anker Innovation has been suspended or revoked. This incident has a profound impact on the domestic power bank industry, and many companies such as Romas and Anker Innovation need to pay a huge economic price to deal with the recall of the incident. There was even news that Romas internally notified employees to completely stop work and production, and employee wages were only paid until June, causing concerns about "bankruptcy".

Obviously, in this power bank crisis, power bank companies and battery cell companies Ampris are the biggest "losers", who is the winner? After the incident, Anker Innovation changed the battery cell supplier and replaced it with another battery cell head company, ATL (New Energy Group), and the press release introduced that Anker Innovation has placed a large order of 45 million battery cells to ATL. As a result, ATL directly won in this power bank crisis, "falling from the sky" and becoming the biggest winner. Behind ATL is TDK, a world-renowned Japanese electronic component manufacturer and sensor giant. In addition, the founder of ATL is Zeng Yuqun of CATL, a Chinese new energy giant. What is the relationship between TDK, ATL, CATL and CATL?

The winner ATL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japanese sensor giant TDK, is actually Zeng Yuqun of CATL! TDK was once a major shareholder of CATL! ATL is a lithium battery company headquartered in Hong Kong, ATL is the abbreviation of Amperex Technology Limited, and its Chinese name is New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. Currently, ATL is the world's largest supplier of polymer batteries, supplying batteries to mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple, Huawei, OPPO, ViVo, and Xiaomi. ATL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TDK, a global manufacturer of integrated electronic components and a sensor giant. TDK has five major sectors, including energy application products, magnetic application products, sensor application products, passive component application products, and others, and ATL's lithium battery business belongs to the energy application product sector. According to TDK's fiscal year 2024 report, energy application products are TDK's largest revenue segment, accounting for 53.4%, passive components accounting for 25.4%, and magnetic application products accounting for 10.1%.

It is worth mentioning that the Chinese market is the largest region for TDK's revenue, accounting for 54.1% of revenue in fiscal 2024, and China has accounted for more than 50% of revenue for many years. TDK's revenue in fiscal 2024 will be 2,204.8 billion yen (approximately 109.4 billion yuan).

The power bank crisis has affected the entire Chinese power bank industry, and even the Civil Aviation Administration of China has mandated that only 3C certified power banks are allowed to be carried on board, which means the beginning of a new round of industrial upgrading and reshuffle. With the deepening of the investigation, more power bank companies that use Ampris' problematic batches of battery cells may need to carry out product recalls. Obviously, ATL and other compliant battery cell companies have become the direct beneficiaries of this power bank incident, and behind ATL, we have peeked into a global electronic component and sensor king - TDK. ATL's energy application product sector is TDK's largest business, and China is TDK's largest source of revenue. From this article's discussion of TDK's business, especially its mergers and acquisitions in the sensor industry, we see the continuous innovation of a 90-year-old Japanese company. The development of enterprises, like the growth of people, needs to come out step by step, "All the gifts given by fate have already been secretly priced." ”