Continued tension in power supply

Business News Agency June 2 hearing The current tight supply of electricity and rising electricity prices have also affected the pharmaceutical industry. Among them, bulk bulk drug manufacturers are affected.

The National Development Reform announced that: Since June 1st, the prices of electricity for industry, commerce, and agriculture in 15 provinces and cities have been raised by 1.67 cents per kilowatt-hour. According to the latest CEC forecast, the country’s electricity supply will continue to be tight this year, and it is expected that with the advent of summer, electricity consumption will likely continue to climb. According to the latest data, the lack of electricity in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Hunan since April is very obvious.

On June 1st, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of VA and VE, Xinhecheng (002001. SZ), insiders told reporters in a telephone interview that the company had arranged for scheduled shutdowns to be maintained during the peak of electricity from August to September and Measures such as production cuts for small varieties of products to deal with electricity restriction policies.

Xinhecheng is one of the world's most important vitamin producers. The company's leading products are VE, VA, VH, VD3, and carotenoids, and its market share ranks among the top in the world. Another domestic leading manufacturer of VE is Zhejiang Pharmaceutical (600216.SH), which together account for about 40% of the global VE market share.

Xinhecheng and Zhejiang Medicine are located in Zhejiang Province. According to media reports, Zhejiang is facing the worst power shortage situation in the past seven years, and management departments in some regions have even implemented power cuts without notification.

Faced with this situation, the above-mentioned Xinhe Cheng insiders also stated that if the electric power shortage intensified this year, the company’s power shortage will continue to expand, and the company may reduce the range of production capacity from the small varieties of previous years to the key varieties.

According to the research report of Qilu Securities, the sub-sector that currently uses the largest amount of electricity in the pharmaceutical industry is the bulk API industry that produces vitamin series and other products. Its energy consumption for large-scale production such as fermentation and synthesis is more obvious in terms of cost.

With regard to the increase in the cost of electricity, Hu Juyong, a representative of Xinhecheng Securities, said that the cost of electricity should account for about 10% of the company's production costs. With reference to the price hikes by the National Development and Reform Commission, the cost of electricity has risen by more than two points, affecting about two-thousandths of the company's production costs. Therefore, rising electricity prices have little effect on the company's performance.

Although the impact is limited at present, the Qilu Securities Research Report suggests that if the electricity shortage continues to spread, the power gaps of the world’s most important vitamin manufacturers, such as Xinhecheng and Zhejiang Medicine, will continue to expand, and the capacity utilization rate of some future pharmaceutical raw material medicine products will increase. affected. Given their influence in the supply and demand of the industry, the prices of some of their products are expected to increase.

In addition to the new bulk pharmaceutical companies such as Shinwah and Zhejiang Pharmaceuticals, which are significantly affected by the power shortage, other pharmaceutical companies have also suffered from power shortages and have taken measures to deal with them.

Guangji Pharmaceutical (000952.SZ) is the global leader in VB2 production. For the shortage of electricity and the rise in electricity prices, Xiong Yonghong, its securities affairs representative, said: The company has signed an agreement with the power supply department to protect the company's power supply, and the power cut policy has no impact on the company in the short term. The electricity price in Hubei rose by less than two cents, which has little impact on the cost of the company.

An industry source told reporters: In the pharmaceutical industry, compared with bulk API companies, production companies in other fields such as chemical medicines, proprietary Chinese medicines, and vaccines use less electricity and have a lower share of production costs. Companies have more scope and more choices to cope with the tight supply of electricity and rising electricity prices.

Leading domestic infusion company Sichuan Kelun Pharmaceutical (002422.SZ) Dong Xiong Xiong Ying told reporters in an e-mail: The company has long believed that the rise in electricity prices is a long-term trend, and has been using a variety of ways to eliminate the impact of rising electricity prices, such as new The plant design fully considers the energy conservation measures, the ongoing energy-saving transformation of existing production facilities, and the training and education of employees' awareness of energy conservation. In addition, the cost of electricity accounts for a relatively small portion of the cost of manufacturing. The increase in the price of electricity does not affect the performance of the company.