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Batteries

Monbat Group provides a wide range of battery products and solutions for a variety of end-market applications

Automotive
Automotive
Agriculture
Agriculture
Public Transportation
Public Transportation
Marine
Marine
Defence
Defence
Industrial
Industrial
Aerospace
Aerospace
Telecommunications
Telecommunications
Renewable sources
Renewable sources

LEAD ACID BATTERIES

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The lead acid battery business focuses on the production of lead-acid automotive and stationary batteries and their servicing. The products in this segment can be divided into the following main groups:

  • starter batteries
  • stationary batteries
  • deep cycle batteries
  • special batteries
  • locomotives batteries
  • leisure batteries

RECYCLING

RECYCLING contacts

The division operates in recycling and trading activities of

  • lead acid scrap batteries
  • lead alloys
  • polyethylene and polypropylene materials

Recycling facilities are located in Bulgaria as well as in Italy, Romania and Serbia.

LITHIUM ION SOLUTIONS

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The lithium-Ion business segment operates under the EAS brand and provides cells and systems based on safe and proven LFP chemistry. The adopted cylindrical cells technology and the modular-based packing approach of the battery and systems allows EAS to maintain its attractive product range of High Power (HP) batteries for selected industries such as:

  • public transport
  • commercial fleet
  • construction machines
  • marine
  • harbour
  • and airport operations

Lead Acid Business Segment

The vertically integrated business model comprises four integrated functions which cover all aspects of the supply chain, from the extraction of recycled lead, through its recycling operations, to the production and sale of lead-acid batteries to the market

Competitive Edge

The vertically integrated group, with currently four recycling plants allocated to its diverse sourcing base, allows Monbat Group to constantly apply opportunity gain management.

Vertical integration not only brings high integrated margins; it also allows for natural hedging to lead price variations on the London Metal Exchange throughout the year.

In instances of abrupt LME behavior, many players can suffer missing trading volumes or squeezed margins. At Monbat, this brings the chance to tap into a window of opportunity.

Recycling is no longer a matter of sourcing but rather a conscious business choice.

Vertically integrated business model

1

Recycling

  • Regular sourcing (leveling the LME-based lead price formula)
  • Economically feasible premium charge, matching the production costs
  • Feasible logistics and internal technology waste routing
  • Scattered market of collection companies, which hinder the ease of sourcing
  • Collection companies are tempted to lock supply in low LME lead price market as well as to initiate price wars in such periods of supply shortage

2

Inventory management

  • Optimum Mass Production Balance
  • Optimum deployment of the working capital
  • Balanced annual contract commitments with external L&A vendors
  • Over/under rolling inventory of lead equivalents and lead & alloy grades
  • Eroded margin due to high CoGS as well as locked money in drastic decrease of the LME and
  • Shortage of L&A to support a market intensity triggered by drastic increase of the LME lead price as well as almost immediate CoGS increase preceding the battery prices adjustment

3

Production

  • Optimum batch sizes
  • Lean manufacturing
  • Availability-to-promise (ATP) seasonal stock to milk the order peaks

4

Trading

  • Go-to-market approach
  • Product mix
  • Own brand/private label mix
  • Trade insurance
  • Overdependence on a few big distributors/ territories in the B2C segment
  • Over-pricing in the commodity driven segments
  • Product specification, which is not meeting the buying/quality expectation of the end client

Benefits of the vertically integrated business model

The vertical integration model has a three-fold benefit:

Enabling higher integration margin due to the synergy benefits of recycled technology lead coming from the group battery plants

Exercising a natural hedging rebalancing mechanism in case of moderate LME fluctuations, thus keeping the integration margin intact (on an annual basis)

Provide the ability to steal an advantage in the event of extreme or abnormal LME fluctuations, which, if the business as usual ‘mode of operation’ were maintained, would result in a sharp downturn in results.

Margin management

The LME lead price fluctuation defines a price curve, which influences the market behavior of the industry chain, namely scrap battery providers, distributors of batteries and final clients.

The vertical integration model provides a tactical response to these behaviours by securing margin gain in all scenarios, including the extremes of market-driven margin squeeze and margin spread.

Cerchio
London Metal Exchange

The temporary margin squeeze or margin headroom implications are moderated through the mechanisms of the natural hedging of vertical integration, in which the rolling inventory of L&A and lead equivalents play a major role.

Any abnormal and steep change in the LME lead price (up or downward) can conditionalise different market behaviour from players in the industry chain. An upward steep curve can cause a “buyer” behaviour at the distributors’/final clients’ end, respectively, increasing their selectivity and buying patterns. A downward steep curve can cause a “seller” behaviour among scrap batteries’ collectors, causing them to increase the price or become unwilling to sell. In such context, a tactical re-focus of business activities in our vertical integrated model is required to offset any repercussions on the integrated margin.

Margin is optimized in the Recycling Division

In High LEM lead price market context, Monbat is aiming to maximize the margin gain from the opening market spread

Margin is optimized in the Finished Goods Division

In Low LME lead price market context, Monbat is aiming to minimize the margin squeeze on the integrated margin.