21st Century Business Herald Reporter Dong Peng
The stabilization and rebound of potassium and lithium prices have helped Qinghai Yanhu Industry's profitability recover rapidly.
On the evening of April 13, Qinghai Yanhu Industry released its first-quarter performance report. During the period, the company's revenue and profit figures both doubled, with the net profit attributable to the parent company reaching 2.94 billion yuan, approaching the cyclical peak of the two major industries in 2022, when its profit scale was around 3.5 billion yuan.
In addition to the benefits brought by the improvement in industry prosperity, Qinghai Yanhu Industry's performance this year has also been driven by its own new production capacity and the consolidated financial statements of China Minmetals Salt Lake.
Taking the new production capacity as an example, the company's 40,000 tons/year integrated lithium salt project is scheduled to start trial production by the end of September 2025, which has helped the company's lithium carbonate production and sales double in the first quarter of this year.
It is worth noting that, unlike the original subsidiary, Blue Lithium Industry's 40,000 tons lithium salt project, the above-mentioned new production capacity is entirely invested and constructed by Qinghai Yanhu Industry, with the listed company holding 100% equity.
Accordingly, Qinghai Yanhu Industry does not need to deduct minority shareholders' profits and losses, allowing more profits to be included in the parent company's profit statement, further amplifying the company's profit elasticity.
In recent years, affected by the decline in lithium prices, the contribution of Qinghai Yanhu Industry's lithium salt products to its performance has been continuously decreasing.
By 2025, the revenue proportion of the company's lithium salt products is expected to drop to 18.8%, while the gross profit margin during the same period is expected to fall to around 16.9%, with the company's performance relying more on its &#34;basic&#34; potassium fertilizer products.
This year is markedly different; domestic lithium salt products have maintained a relatively high level above 130,000 yuan/ton since the fourth quarter of 2025.
According to Wind statistics, in the first quarter of this year, the average price of domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate was 154,400 yuan/ton, doubling from the average of 75,800 yuan/ton in the same period last year.
At the same time, after the launch of the 40,000 tons lithium salt new production capacity at the end of September 2025, Qinghai Yanhu Industry's lithium carbonate production and sales data have also shown significant improvement this year.
Historical data shows that in the first quarter of 2025, the company's lithium carbonate production was 8,500 tons, with sales of approximately 8,100 tons.
In the first quarter of this year, Qinghai Yanhu Industry's lithium carbonate production and sales increased to approximately 19,500 tons and 16,800 tons, respectively, with an increase of over 100%.
&#34;The mass production of the 40,000 tons/year integrated lithium salt project has driven the year-on-year increase in lithium carbonate production and sales, and the market price is on an upward trend, contributing to a significant increase in the company's overall performance,&#34; Qinghai Yanhu Industry pointed out.
Even without more data to support it at present, it can be anticipated that under the drive of the aforementioned doubling of lithium carbonate prices and production and sales, the contribution of the company's lithium salt products to its performance is expected to significantly increase this year.
In contrast, another major product of Qinghai Yanhu Industry, potassium chloride, although the increase in volume and price is not as significant as that of lithium carbonate, is also in a state of profit expansion, and achieving year-on-year growth should not be a major issue.
According to Longzhong Information, in the first quarter, the average price of Qinghai Yanhu potassium chloride (60% powder) reached 3,100 yuan/ton, an increase of about 450 yuan/ton compared to the average price in the same period last year
During the same period, Qinghai Yanhu Industry's potassium chloride production remained stable, but sales increased significantly from 891,100 tons in the first quarter of 2025 to 1,329,700 tons this year (with cumulative potassium chloride inventory reaching 1,171,600 tons by the end of 2025).
The two major products, potassium fertilizer and lithium salt, boosted Qinghai Yanhu Industry's main business growth in the first quarter, while the company also completed the acquisition of Minmetals Salt Lake during the period.
In December 2025, to resolve industry competition issues, Qinghai Yanhu Industry acquired 51% of Minmetals Salt Lake for 4.605 billion yuan in cash.
At the end of January this year, the equity change for this transaction was completed, and Minmetals Salt Lake became a subsidiary of Qinghai Yanhu Industry, included in the latter's consolidated financial statements.
&#34;During the reporting period, Minmetals Salt Lake achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company's owners of 159 million yuan, accounting for 5.42% of the net profit attributable to the parent company's owners in the consolidated financial statements,&#34; Qinghai Yanhu Industry pointed out.
Driven by multiple factors, Qinghai Yanhu Industry's revenue, profit, and profit margin indicators in the first quarter were significantly better than those in the same period of 2025, with a net profit attributable to the parent company of 2.94 billion yuan in a single quarter, marking the best performance since the potassium and lithium cycle peaked in 2022.
Unlike other industries, upstream raw material companies like Qinghai Yanhu Industry have more transparent production capacity and price trends, making performance forecasting relatively easier.
In early January this year, when domestic lithium carbonate prices rose to 130,000 yuan/ton, several sell-side analysts had already raised Qinghai Yanhu Industry's profit forecast for 2026 to around 12 billion yuan.
Under the expectation of profit growth, the company's stock price began to rise from the fourth quarter of 2025, and by mid-March this year, the maximum increase had nearly doubled.
Moreover, consistent with the aforementioned profit data approaching the 2022 cycle peak, Qinghai Yanhu Industry's current stock price of nearly 39 yuan is also very close to the high point at the beginning of its relisting in 2021, and even slightly higher than the cycle peak in 2022.
It is precisely against this backdrop that after the disclosure of Qinghai Yanhu Industry's first-quarter performance report, the company's stock price did not show significant fluctuations like other stocks with performance growth.
It is evident that this year's profit growth expectations for Qinghai Yanhu Industry have already been fully reflected in the company's stock price, and any further increase may require new expectations to emerge.
In terms of price, the possibility of a divergence in expectations is greater, especially for lithium salts, which exhibit more pronounced volatility.
As of April 14, the domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate spot price was 161,500 yuan/ton, while the latest prices for futures contracts reflecting price expectations for July, August, and September remained between 164,000 yuan and 167,000 yuan.
The small price difference between spot and futures prices, as well as among futures contracts for different months, indicates a relatively unified price expectation in the current market.
However, if lithium prices experience fluctuations in the second quarter and see a new round of increases during the peak season in the second half of the year, the aforementioned sell-side profit expectation of 12 billion yuan will be revised again
It should also be noted that this year, the growth expectations for the lithium salt business of Qinghai Yanhu Industry are very clear.
Unlike the original 40,000 tons of lithium salt capacity of its subsidiary, LanKe Lithium, the additional 40,000 tons of integrated capacity added by Qinghai Yanhu Industry in 2025 will be entirely owned by Qinghai Yanhu Industry, with the company holding 100% equity.
With the consolidated subsidiary, Minmetals Salt Lake, the total lithium salt capacity of Qinghai Yanhu Industry will increase from 40,000 tons in 2025 to 98,000 tons, representing a capacity increase of 145%.
However, the above figures only represent the total capacity on paper for the lithium salt segment. When calculating the net profit attributable to the parent company, the listed company needs to deduct the minority shareholders' profits and losses, such as those from the minority shareholder, Keda Manufacturing, which holds nearly half of the equity in LanKe Lithium.
In contrast, the growth in equity capacity for Qinghai Yanhu Industry this year is even higher, increasing from around 20,000 tons in 2025 to 69,000 tons (20,000 tons from LanKe, 40,000 tons from new production, and 9,000 tons from Minmetals Salt Lake), representing an increase of approximately 245%.
This is significantly greater than the aforementioned increase in the lithium salt capacity on paper and also far exceeds the increase in potash fertilizer capacity after consolidating with Minmetals Salt Lake, which will correspondingly contribute more to the profits of the listed company's parent.
The higher growth rate in equity capacity, if supported by a rise in lithium prices in the future, will further amplify the profit elasticity of Qinghai Yanhu Industry

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Qinghai Yanhu Industry achieved significant performance growth in the first quarter of 2023, with a net profit attributable to the parent company reaching 2.94 billion yuan, close to the peak of the 2022 cycle. The rebound in potassium and lithium prices and the release of new production capacity are the main driving factors. The company's lithium carbonate production and sales both doubled, reaching 19,500 tons and 16,800 tons, respectively. It is expected that by 2025, the revenue proportion of lithium salt products will decrease to 18.8%, but this year's market prices remain high, supporting the recovery of the company's profitability

腾讯新闻 - 财经

Qinghai Yanhu Industry

In the first quarter, both the quantity and price of potassium and lithium increased, and Qinghai Yanhu Industry's profits returned to the high point of the 2022 cycle