--- title: "Diaphragms are no longer supporting roles, Senior rushes to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the lithium battery midstream welcomes a price reassessment" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/276696383.md" description: "Senior Material Technology Co., Ltd. is making a push to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, marking a transformation in the lithium battery separator industry. With the rational reshuffling of the new energy industry, separators have become key to battery performance and safety. Market focus has shifted from complete vehicles and batteries to the material side, leading to a value reassessment in the separator industry. It is expected that the market will maintain over 20% growth in the next five years, especially in Europe and the United States. Senior Material is establishing a product matrix through multiple route technologies, demonstrating its strategic position in the global supply chain" datetime: "2026-02-24T07:11:53.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/276696383.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276696383.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/276696383.md) --- > Supported Languages: [简体中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/276696383.md) | [繁體中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/276696383.md) # Diaphragms are no longer supporting roles, Senior rushes to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the lithium battery midstream welcomes a price reassessment As the new energy industry transitions from "rapid expansion" to "rational reshuffling," the role of the midstream in the industrial chain is quietly changing. Once regarded as supporting materials, separators are now gradually becoming a key link that determines battery performance, safety, and cost. The global competition landscape for power batteries is becoming increasingly clear, and the real game is shifting from vehicles and batteries to the materials side. Against this backdrop, Shenzhen Senior Material Technology Co., Ltd., the world's second-largest supplier of lithium-ion battery separators, is once again making a push for "A+H" listings. This is not just a financing action but also a redefinition of its industrial position and future path. What the capital market is focusing on is no longer just scale growth, but the restructuring of the global supply chain, the strengthening of technological barriers, and the sustainability of the second growth curve. In recent years, driven by leaders like CATL and BYD, the separator industry has experienced a surge in demand. However, the subsequent capacity expansion and price competition have quickly led the industry into a new cycle of "increased volume and decreased prices." For Senior Material, the coexistence of short-term profit pressure and long-term industrial upgrading makes this trip to Hong Kong more like a strategic bet at a critical juncture: moving from a manufacturing enterprise to a global materials platform. **From scale expansion to the global supply chain hub, the revaluation of lithium battery separators** The rapid growth of the new energy industry has changed the value distribution structure of the battery industrial chain. In the early stages, market attention was focused on vehicle and battery companies, while material companies were more viewed as cost control tools. However, with the upgrading of battery technology and the enhancement of safety standards, the importance of separators has risen sharply. Whether for high energy density batteries or long-cycle life energy storage batteries, there are higher performance requirements for separators, and frequent safety incidents further reinforce the strategic position of materials. This change has shifted the separator industry from an "invisible track" to core infrastructure. The global market size is expected to maintain over 20% growth in the next five years, especially with the acceleration of localization production trends in Europe and the United States, driving explosive demand in non-China markets. This structural growth gives material companies the ability to jointly define the industry landscape with battery companies for the first time. In this process, Senior Material's strategic path is representative. Its core competitiveness is not a single technology but a parallel multi-route approach. From dry process to wet process to coating, the company has established a product matrix covering different market cycles. Dry process separators have advantages in cost and scale, becoming a moat during the industry's price decline phase; wet process and coating technologies then penetrate the high-end market, binding high-performance battery customers. Compared to single-path companies, this multi-technology route layout gives it stronger cyclical resistance. More importantly, the customer structure is evolving. The concentration of global power batteries is continuously increasing, and the deep binding of material suppliers with leading customers is gradually forming a quasi-"ecological relationship." Senior Material serves clients including international manufacturers like LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI, as well as major domestic battery companies With the globalization of battery manufacturing, the localization capabilities of material suppliers have become a threshold for entering the core supply chain. This means that future industry competition will shift from purely cost advantages to global supply chain responsiveness. As a result, overseas capacity layout has become a core variable in the industry. The construction of production bases by Senior in Europe, Southeast Asia, and the United States is not only market expansion but also a strategic layout to respond to geopolitical and trade barriers. Driven by new energy policies in Europe and the United States, local supply chains have become a necessary option, and material companies must follow their customers globally. The importance of capital market financing has also become more prominent. In this context, the significance of the company's return to the Hong Kong stock market goes far beyond just capital replenishment. The Hong Kong stock market is closer to global investors and is more conducive to building an international brand and valuation system. In recent years, many new energy companies have chosen the "A+H" structure, attempting to establish a bridge between domestic growth and global capital. For Senior, this is not only a financing platform but also an upgrade in industrial discourse power. **Price Wars and Technological Revolutions Coexist: The Long-term Gamble for Material Companies** In the past three years, the price of separators has rapidly declined, leading to an overall drop in industry gross margins. Scale advantages remain important, but the manufacturing attributes are gradually strengthening. Overcapacity and demand cycle fluctuations have shifted the industry from "high growth" to "high volatility." This round of price wars is essentially an inevitable result of the industry entering a mature stage. Early high profits attracted a large influx of capital, leading to rapid supply expansion. As demand growth slows, the focus of competition has shifted from technological breakthroughs to cost efficiency. Leading companies reduce costs through scale, automation, and supply chain optimization, while small and medium-sized enterprises face elimination or consolidation. The profit pressure on Senior is a microcosm of this structural adjustment. From 2022 to 2024, the company's annual profits are projected to be 748 million yuan, 594 million yuan, and 371 million yuan, showing a downward trend year by year. Behind the short-term profit fluctuations is the investment cycle of global capacity layout and technological upgrades. The construction of overseas factories brings rising depreciation and financial costs, and R&D investment continues to increase with the industry's technological upgrades. From a long-term perspective, this resembles a strategic choice of "exchanging cash for market." What truly determines the future of the industry is still the technological path. Solid-state batteries are seen as the next generation of power battery direction, and their material systems will undergo significant changes. The roles of traditional separators and electrolytes may be restructured, with new materials like electrolyte membranes becoming key components. For material companies, this is both a challenge and an opportunity to reshape the competitive landscape. Senior's systematic layout in solid-state battery-related materials indicates its attempt to maintain a leading position amid technological changes. If solid-state batteries enter a stage of scale, companies that master core materials will gain higher bargaining power. Historical experience shows that the material segment often sees a value reassessment during technological iterations. At the same time, the company's extension into the semiconductor materials field also reflects a typical path for new material enterprises. There are commonalities between new energy and semiconductors at the material level, and products like high-purity ceramics can achieve technological synergy. This platform-based development model can reduce cyclical fluctuations and also bring new growth space for enterprises. In recent years, global leaders in new materials have generally adopted similar strategies, using multi-track layouts to hedge against single industry risks From a longer-term perspective, the ultimate outcome of the membrane industry may not be perfect competition, but rather a global oligopoly. As technology, capital, and customer barriers increase, industry concentration will further rise. The overseas market will become a key variable in determining future rankings. Those who can first achieve globalization and technological upgrades may become the true material giants. Therefore, the market's core focus on Senior has shifted from short-term profits to long-term capabilities. The profitability elasticity brought by supply and demand improvements, the speed of technology conversion, the establishment of overseas production capacity, and global customer relationships will become key factors determining the company's valuation. As the new energy industry enters a new phase, midstream material companies are moving from supporting roles to the center stage. Senior's journey in the Hong Kong stock market is not only a financing event but also a microcosm of the power restructuring in the lithium battery supply chain. 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