The Zhitong Finance App learned that Huafu Securities released a research report saying that for the hydrogen energy industry, favorable policies from the central government and local authorities were frequently issued after a year. Previously, the technology, cost, infrastructure and other issues that made it difficult to develop hydrogen energy on a large scale all provided solutions in the above policies. All aspects of the production, storage, transportation, addition, and use of hydrogen energy ushered in benefits. In this context, the bank believes that the bottlenecks in the development of the hydrogen energy industry are being continuously broken through, and investment opportunities for relevant high-quality standards within the industry are gradually becoming prominent.

Incident: On February 29, 2024, seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the “Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Greening Development of the Manufacturing Industry”. The opinions indicate that hydrogen vehicles equipped with ETC packages should be built around hydrogen demand in various fields to improve the technical economy and industrial chain completeness of hydrogen energy technology; in addition, Shandong Province issued a “Notice on Temporary Exemption of Highway Tolls for Hydrogen Vehicles”, which requires hydrogen vehicles equipped with ETC packages to be exempted from high-speed charges from March 1.

Huafu Securities's views are as follows:

The introduction of top-level policies refers to the construction of a full-chain system and economic improvement.

From February 27 to 29, the country has intensively introduced four top-level hydrogen energy policies. The opinions issued by seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on February 29 mainly revolved around the green and low-carbon transformation of traditional energy sources and the development of emerging green industries; among them, hydrogen energy requirements were built based on hydrogen demand in the fields of petrochemicals, steel, transportation, energy storage, power generation, etc., to build a technical equipment system for the entire hydrogen energy industry chain and improve the economy of hydrogen energy technology. Meanwhile, the Development and Reform Commission and the Energy Administration also call for exploring and promoting the development and deployment of new energy storage technologies such as hydrogen energy storage in their guidance on strengthening peak power grid energy storage and intelligent scheduling capacity building. In addition, recently, the National Energy Administration also issued guidelines on hydrogen energy as the key direction of the 2024 energy industry standard plan, and included practical examples of scientific and technological innovation application in the entire hydrogen energy industry chain of Dongfang Electric as classic examples of green and low-carbon energy transformation. The bank believes that the government introduced the above policy with the aim of promoting collaborative construction of technology, equipment, standards, etc. throughout the hydrogen energy industry chain and improving the economy of hydrogen energy, so as to break the bottleneck that made it difficult to industrialize hydrogen energy until now.

Policies favorable to hydrogen energy have been stepped up frequently, and industrial development has entered the “fast track”.

After the Spring Festival, various local governments in China intensively introduced favorable policies related to hydrogen energy, with the aim of promoting the orderly and rapid development of the hydrogen energy industry. Recently, Shandong Province issued the “Notice on Temporary Exemption of Highway Tolls for Hydrogen Vehicles”. The notice requires that hydrogen energy vehicles equipped with ETC packages driving on highways in Shandong Province will be temporarily exempted from highway tolls from March 1, 2024. The policy will be implemented for a trial period of 2 years. According to Shiyin Energy Chain estimates, eliminating high-speed fees can reduce TCO costs for long-distance hydrogen energy tractors by more than 20%, which will effectively reduce hydrogen storage and transportation costs; in addition, in order to guarantee the fueling demand for hydrogen vehicles, the construction speed of hydrogen fueling stations and integrated energy fueling stations along the Shandong Expressway is also expected to be further accelerated. In addition to Shandong Province, provinces and cities such as Beijing, Inner Mongolia, and Jilin all introduced favorable hydrogen energy policies after the year. Support measures include hydrogen fueling station subsidies and permits, green hydrogen subsidies, etc. While improving the economy of the hydrogen energy industry, it is also expected to play a demonstration and leading role for other regions, driving promotion and development, including hydrogen for terminal use.

Hydrogen energy development bottlenecks continue to break through, and investment opportunities for relevant high-quality targets have emerged.

For the hydrogen energy industry, favorable policies from the central government and local authorities were frequently issued after a year. Previously, the problems of technology, cost, infrastructure, etc. that made it difficult to develop hydrogen energy on a large scale all provided solutions in the above policies, and all aspects of the production, storage, transportation, addition, and use of hydrogen energy ushered in benefits. In this context, the bank believes that the bottlenecks in the development of the hydrogen energy industry are being continuously broken through, and investment opportunities for relevant high-quality standards within the industry are gradually becoming prominent.

Investment advice:

1) Hydrogen production process: It is recommended to focus on Huaguang Huan Energy (600475.SH), Huadian Heavy Industries (601226.SH), Shuangliang Energy Saving (600481.SH), and the scarce green hydrogen test target Cowell (); 688551.SH

2) Storage and transportation links: It is recommended to focus on Kaishan shares (300257.SZ), ice wheel environment (000811.SZ) of compressors, Beijing shares (600860.SH), Lanshi Heavy Duty (603169.SH), hydrogen liquefaction of Zhongtai shares (300435.SZ), Shudao equipment for hydrogen liquefaction and hydrogen filling equipment (300540.SZ), Jiangsu Shentong (002438.SZ), which lays out valve business, Jiangsu Shentong (002438.SZ), China Nuclear Technology (000777.SZ), Shengyuan Environmental Protection (3007.86) for solid hydrogen storage technology SZ) , Reclean and Environmental Protection (688335.SH), sealing technology for hydrogen sealing (301020.SZ), Fufu Energy for the construction of hydrogen refueling stations and integrated energy stations (002911.SZ);

3) Fuel cell sector: It is recommended to focus on Yihuatong (02402) and Xiongtao Co., Ltd. (002733.SZ).

Risk warning: Project construction progress falls short of expectations; implementation of hydrogen energy policies falls short of expectations; industry competition intensifies; public data used in research reports may be delayed or not updated in a timely manner.