【Shanshan Restructuring】Will the "No. 1" and "No. 2" in the Global Anode Materials Industry...

 The rapid growth of the EV and energy storage industries is boosting demand for high-performance lithium batteries, driving the market for quality petroleum coke and synthetic graphite. The quality and particle size of calcined petroleum coke directly affect synthetic graphite performance, especially in anode production.

【Shanshan Restructuring】Will the "No. 1" and "No. 2" in the Global Anode Materials Industry Come Together?

On December 12, 2025, BTR, the world's largest supplier of anode materials by shipment volume, together with its controlling shareholder China Baoan, released a joint announcement stating that they had paid a RMB 50 million deposit and formally registered to participate in the substantive consolidated restructuring of Shanshan Group and its subsidiaries.
If this consortium ultimately prevails, the "No. 1" and "No. 2" players in the global anode materials industry would be brought together. The combined entity is expected to have total capacity exceeding 800,000 tons, with a global market share of more than one-third.

This restructuring case began in February 2025, when Shanshan Group, unable to repay its due debts, was ruled by the Yinzhou District People's Court of Ningbo to enter bankruptcy restructuring proceedings. As of September 2025, the total confirmed claims had reached RMB 33.55 billion.
Despite the parent company being mired in a debt crisis, its core asset—the listed company Shanshan Co., Ltd., which it controls—has remained fundamentally sound. Shanshan Co., Ltd. is not only a global leader in the polarizer industry, but its anode materials business also ranks second globally.

I. Debt Crisis: Shanshan's Predicament and Turning Point

Shanshan Group's debt crisis did not emerge overnight. In February 2023, the sudden passing of founder Zheng Yonggang triggered a struggle for corporate control, significantly disrupting the company's governance structure. At the same time, earlier non-core business expansions had accumulated a heavy debt burden. Data show that by the end of 2024, the combined interest-bearing liabilities of Shanshan Group and Shanshan Co., Ltd. exceeded RMB 30 billion.

The first restructuring attempt ended in failure. In September 2025, a financial investor consortium led by capital under "private shipping tycoon" Ren Yuanlin, together with TCL Industrial Capital and China Orient Asset Management, had signed a restructuring agreement. However, the draft restructuring plan failed to obtain approval from key creditor groups at the creditors' meeting and was therefore shelved.

This failure sent a clear signal: when resolving the crisis of such a major real-economy industrial group, a purely financial-capital-driven solution is no longer sufficient to win broad trust.

As a result, when the administrator restarted the second round of recruitment in November 2025, it explicitly stated a preference for parties with "a background in polarizer and/or anode material industries." This orientation directly shifted the restructuring from "financial relief" to "industrial integration."

II. Industrial Synergy: Why BTR's Proposal Is More Highly Regarded

Among the current contenders, the consortium formed by BTR and China Baoan is widely viewed as the proposal with the greatest industrial synergy. Its advantages are concrete and tangible, mainly reflected in the following aspects:

1. Addressing Cost Pain Points and Enhancing Competitiveness

Shanshan Co., Ltd. owns approximately 150,000 tons of graphitization capacity. Graphitization is a key, highly energy-intensive step in anode material production and accounts for a significant portion of total costs. Successful integration could substantially reduce reliance on outsourced processing and lower overall costs.

2. Technological Complementarity and Defining the Future

Both sides have strengths in next-generation technology reserves. Shanshan has already achieved ton-scale deliveries of silicon-based anodes, while BTR has a more comprehensive silicon-based anode technology roadmap. This combination would significantly enhance bargaining power with downstream battery manufacturers and accelerate the industrialization of cutting-edge technologies such as solid-state batteries.

3. Coverage of a Global Top-Tier Customer Network

BTR's core customers include CATL, Panasonic, and Samsung SDI, while Shanshan is deeply embedded with LG Energy Solution, BYD, and Gotion High-Tech. Their combination would effectively achieve near-complete coverage of the world's top ten battery companies, substantially raising market entry barriers.

4. Alignment with the Industry's Intrinsic Need to "De-Involution"

Over the past few years, the anode materials industry has experienced rapid capacity expansion and intense price competition. Integrating leading capacities would help optimize the supply side, guiding the industry away from low-level price wars toward high-quality competition driven by technology, cost efficiency, and scale.

III. Hidden Risks: Uncertainties and Challenges Facing Other Participants

In addition to BTR, the other two interested investors—Fangda Carbon and Hunan Salt Industry Group—have proposals that raise greater questions and concerns.

Concerns Regarding Fangda Carbon's Proposal

Fangda Carbon is a domestic leader in graphite electrodes, and its logic for participating in the restructuring lies in vertical integration along the industrial chain. However, this proposal faces multiple challenges:

1. "Small swallowing big" financial and integration pressure:

Fangda Carbon reported revenue of approximately RMB 3.9 billion in 2024, while Shanshan Group's revenue reached RMB 18.8 billion. Given Fangda Carbon's own scale and cash flow (as of the end of Q3 2025, cash and cash equivalents were about RMB 8.5 billion, but short-term borrowings stood at RMB 4.5 billion), independently completing a restructuring investment exceeding RMB 10 billion would be extremely difficult and would likely require high leverage, thereby exacerbating its own financial risks.

2. Pressure on its core business and high cross-industry risk:

In recent years, Fangda Carbon's traditional graphite electrode business has been negatively affected by the steel industry, with continued performance declines. In the first three quarters of 2025, its net profit attributable to shareholders fell 55.89% year-on-year. Under such circumstances, its ability to effectively manage and integrate an anode materials giant—whose technology, markets, and management differ significantly—remains highly uncertain. Its prior integration of HNA Holdings was lengthy and its results remain to be seen.

3. Lack of direct industry operating experience:

Although both graphite electrodes and lithium battery anodes fall under carbon materials, there are significant differences in product standards, customer qualification systems, and process details. Fangda Carbon lacks direct experience in large-scale production and sales of anode materials, raising doubts about its post-integration operational capability.

Concerns Regarding Hunan Salt Industry Group's Proposal

As a provincial state-owned enterprise, Hunan Salt Industry Group's participation primarily reflects local state capital's strategic intention to enter the new energy sector. However, its core issues include:

1. Lack of industrial experience:

The company's main businesses are salt and salt-based chemicals, which are far removed from high-end anode materials. While the administrator's recruitment emphasized an "industrial background," Hunan Salt Industry Group offers more of a "capital background" and "resource background."

2. Weak strategic synergy:

Although the group claims that by-products from salt chemical processes could provide raw materials for anode production, this is not a core competitive factor in the anode industry. Restructuring a technology-driven leader like Shanshan requires deep industrial understanding, technological judgment, and global market operation capabilities, which are precisely what Hunan Salt Industry Group lacks.

This integration may also need to be reported to China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). The core focus of the review will be whether the transaction substantially weakens market competition. The outcome of this antitrust review will be a key variable determining whether the restructuring can ultimately be implemented.

Conclusion

The restructuring of Shanshan Group has gone beyond the simple resolution of corporate debt and has become a key case for observing how China's new energy materials industry transitions from extensive expansion to high-quality consolidation.

From an industrial development perspective, the industry-synergy-oriented solution represented by BTR is indeed more likely to achieve a "1 + 1 > 2" effect, enhancing the global competitiveness of China's anode materials industry and guiding it out of disorderly competition. However, this path faces stringent antitrust scrutiny.

By contrast, other contenders' proposals may suffer from insufficient financial strength and integration capability, or from a lack of industrial experience, leaving their feasibility and ultimate effectiveness subject to greater uncertainty.

The final outcome of this restructuring will not only determine Shanshan's fate, but will also provide an important reference for the consolidation pathways of China's high-end manufacturing sector as a whole.

Feel free to contact us anytime for more information about the Anode Material market. Our team is dedicated to providing you with in-depth insights and customized assistance based on your needs. Whether you have questions about product specifications, market trends, or pricing, we are here to help.