子公司半年补税1.2亿 隔膜龙头恩捷股份业绩刚复苏就要还旧账

This article covers a major recent event involving leading lithium-ion separator manufacturer ENjie Corporation: just as its financial performance began recovering, three of its subsidiaries were ordered to pay a combined 120 million yuan in back taxes and late fees. The article also reviews Enjie’s growth trajectory and the current state of the lithium-ion separator industry, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Core details of the back tax case: The补缴 involves three subsidiaries located in Wuxi, Jiangxi Tongrui and Zhuhai Enjie. Working backwards from the late fees, the unpaid taxes were outstanding for roughly two years, qualifying this as a legacy issue. No administrative penalties have been issued to date, and the back tax charges will be recognized in current profit and loss for 2025 and 2026, reducing attributable net income for both years accordingly.

2. Key risks exposed: The tax issue is just the tip of the iceberg. Enjie has clear weaknesses in internal control, having previously been penalized by regulators for mismanagement of raised funds. The company also faces severe liquidity pressure: it holds nearly 9.645 billion yuan in short-term debt against just 2.889 billion yuan in cash, representing a funding gap of more than 6.7 billion yuan. Its accounts receivable balance far exceeds its current annual revenue.

3. Current company outlook: Enjie returned to profitability in 2025 and its performance is gradually recovering. However, it still faces risks of overcapacity from a new round of capacity expansion, technological disruption from solid-state batteries, and intense competition from peers, leaving the path of recovery uncertain.

This article uses Enjie’s back tax incident as a case study to analyze the current state of the lithium-ion separator industry, its compliance risks and operational challenges, with key insights for brands along the lithium battery supply chain as follows:

1. Industry development trends: The lithium-ion separator industry has just emerged from a period of overcapacity and price war, with outdated capacity gradually being phased out and performance rebounding in 2025. Driven by downstream demand for large-format cells, the market share of wet-process separators has risen to nearly 80.7%. However, multiple leading industry players have already launched new multi-billion-yuan capacity expansion projects. When the new capacity comes online in 2027–2028, any potential price rebound will be significantly capped.

2. R&D compliance warning: An open secret in the industry is that many companies misclassify production-related expenses such as production line commissioning and process optimization as R&D spending to illegally claim additional tax deductions for R&D expenses. In 2025, Chinese authorities designated lithium batteries and other "three new products" (exports of new energy products) as a key tax compliance supervision target, and these non-compliance risks are now coming to light. Brands need to standardize R&D expense classification to avoid compliance risks.

3. Operational reminder: Amid industry cyclical fluctuations, rapid large-scale expansion can easily mask internal control and funding risks. Brands must balance growth with risk management to avoid repeating Enjie’s mistake of being overwhelmed by short-term debt.

This article summarizes the latest policies, cyclical shifts, risks and opportunities in the lithium-ion separator industry, with key takeaways for sellers along the lithium battery supply chain as follows:

1. Policy and compliance reminder: In 2025, China’s State Taxation Administration officially designated the "three new products"—lithium batteries, photovoltaics, and electric vehicles—as key tax supervision targets, cracking down on illegal claims for R&D expense deductions and other tax incentives. Multiple companies in the industry have already run into trouble, so sellers should conduct internal tax audits as soon as possible, standardize expense classification, and mitigate compliance risks.

2. Demand shifts and opportunities: Outdated capacity in the industry is gradually being eliminated, and market concentration continues to rise. The 314Ah large-format cell has become the mainstream for energy storage, with penetration exceeding 70%. These large cells have higher requirements for separator stability, pushing downstream customers to switch from dry-process to wet-process separators, lifting wet-process separators’ market share to nearly 80.7%. Relevant sellers can capitalize on this growing demand.

3. Risk warning: Multiple leading players have recently announced large-scale capacity expansion plans. When new capacity hits the market en masse in 2027–2028, any price rebound will be significantly capped. Meanwhile, solid-state batteries are entering a critical commercialization window in 2027, and are projected to reach a sizeable market by 2030, which will dampen demand for conventional separators. Sellers should prepare for technological transformation in advance to adapt to coming changes.

This article discloses shifts in production demand and operational lessons from leading players, with key insights for separator and lithium battery material manufacturers as follows:

1. Shifts in production demand: The energy storage sector has become the core driver of separator demand growth. The 314Ah large-format cell is now the energy storage mainstream, with penetration exceeding 70%. These large cells have higher requirements for separator stability and consistency, accelerating downstream customers’ shift from dry-process to wet-process separators and lifting wet-process separators’ market share to nearly 80.7%. Manufacturers can adjust their production layout accordingly to match shifting demand.

2. Compliance operation reminder: Tax regulation has tightened noticeably. A long-standing industry open secret—the misclassification of production expenses such as production line commissioning and process optimization as R&D spending to illegally claim tax incentives—is now being heavily investigated by regulators, with multiple companies already facing back tax orders. Manufacturers need to standardize tax classification, improve internal control systems, and eliminate legacy compliance risks.

3. Expansion risk reminder: Leading players are accelerating capacity expansion, and a new wave of concentrated capacity launches is coming. At the same time, solid-state battery technology is gradually commercializing, creating a risk of underutilization for conventional liquid electrolyte separator capacity. Manufacturers should approach expansion cautiously, balance capacity growth and funding pressure, and prepare for next-generation technology in advance to reduce transition risk.

This article summarizes development trends and core pain points for companies in the lithium-ion separator industry, with key insights for service providers serving the lithium battery sector as follows:

1. Overall industry trends: The lithium-ion separator industry has just completed a cycle of capacity rationalization and is now at an inflection point of earnings recovery. However, leading players have already launched a new round of large-scale expansion, making a new period of overcapacity highly likely. Meanwhile, solid-state battery technology is approaching its 2027 commercialization critical window, putting the entire industry in a transition period of technological iteration with high uncertainty.

2. Core client pain points: First, compliance pain: A large number of lithium battery companies have legacy issues with non-compliant R&D expense classification, and many are already facing back tax risk, creating strong demand for tax compliance review and internal control system optimization services. Second, funding pain: Years of rapid expansion, combined with industry price wars, have left most expanding companies facing heavy short-term debt pressure and tight cash flow, creating demand for financing advisory and cash flow management services. Third, technological transition pain: Faced with technological disruption from solid-state batteries, conventional separator manufacturers broadly need technical transition support to prepare for next-generation product development.

This article discloses the current state of the lithium new energy materials industry and existing corporate issues, with key insights for industrial and investment promotion platforms that serve the lithium battery sector as follows:

1. Corporate demand and investment promotion direction: Leading lithium battery companies are still expanding capacity, creating strong demand for industrial land, financing support and policy incentives. Meanwhile, during the capacity rationalization process, leading players have grown more competitive and market concentration continues to rise. Platforms can target the expansion needs of leading companies and carry out targeted investment promotion.

2. Cooperation risk mitigation: When matching lithium battery company projects and carrying out cooperation, platforms should prioritize auditing companies’ internal control and funding status. Some leading companies show recovering performance on the surface, but actually suffer from inadequate internal controls, heavy short-term debt, and large funding gaps. Conducting due diligence in advance helps platforms avoid cooperation risks.

3. Industrial layout guidance: Wet-process separators are currently in a period of demand growth, while solid-state batteries are a clear long-term technological direction. Platforms can develop projects along different technological paths centered on lithium material iteration to capitalize on growth opportunities from industry transition. At the same time, platforms need to guard against overcapacity risks from the new round of expansion, plan investment promotion scale reasonably, and avoid waste of industrial resources.

This article uses Enjie’s back tax incident as a core case study to summarize industry cyclical shifts and current industrial issues in the lithium-ion separator sector, providing rich research materials for industry analysts, with key insights as follows:

1. New industrial trends: The lithium-ion separator industry has completed a full industry cycle in recent years: 2021–2023 was a boom period of high expansion, 2023–2024 entered a phase of overcapacity and price war, and 2025 reached an inflection point of earnings recovery after capacity rationalization. Today, the adoption of large-format energy storage cells has lifted wet-process separator market share to nearly 80.7%. Leading players have entered a new expansion cycle, while solid-state batteries are expected to reach a critical commercialization window in 2027, putting the industry at a key technological transition node.

2. Newly exposed industrial problems: As regulators tighten tax oversight of the "three new products", the long-standing industry practice of misclassifying production expenses as R&D spending to illegally claim tax incentives has been brought to light. This issue reveals that during the high-growth expansion phase, new energy enterprises generally lag behind in building internal control systems. Additionally, after large-scale expansion, leading players broadly face the common issues of funding pressure and large short-term debt gaps.

3. Directions for further research: Researchers can further explore the balance mechanism between scale expansion and risk management for leading new energy enterprises amid cyclical industry fluctuations, the impact of technological iteration on the competitiveness of incumbent market leaders, and the common issues and governance approaches for tax compliance among new energy enterprises.