The stocks in this compression market leader have performed extremely well since they were first mentioned here in our H2-international magazine, improving from about CHF 300 to more than CHF 400. Burckhardt Compression benefited from a boom in orders for compressors, but also from its service solutions. In the first half of 2021, Burckhardt achieved significantly greater incoming orders of about 80 percent, taking it to CHF 450 million. A “strong increase in hydrogen mobility and energy activities” is expected for the second half of the current year.
Conclusion: The company has a bright future ahead of it and will benefit from the worldwide ramp-up of the hydrogen economy by being active in China too – an acquisition was already made here some time ago. I imagine the company could be a target for a takeover by a large corporation which, as a global player, could seamlessly incorporate Burckhardt Compression’s expertise into its own hydrogen product range. Continues to be suitable as a small admix.
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Nikola Motor positions itself in the global market
At first glance, the news seems to be negative. Nikola Motor has already stated it will settle with the US stock exchange regulatory agency, the SEC, for USD 125 million regarding the misdemeanors of its founder and former CEO, Trevor Milton. On the other hand, however, Nikola plans to claw back this money since Milton probably still owns at least a 10 percent stake in Nikola although he is likely to have sold some of his shares and transferred them to relatives. Nikola cannot simply seize these shares but perhaps it will freeze them until an agreement has been reached.
Bloom Energy – billion-dollar deal triggers price explosion
Bloom Energy gained its South Korean customer and corporate partner of many years, SK ecoplant, as a shareholder and, thanks to the existing good working relationship, has even bagged a USD 4.5 billion order – for hardware and software and also service revenue – for 500 megawatts for the time being. This order should only be the start though and so ought to have further potential. SK ecoplant, part of the SK Group, is the largest energy corporation in South Korea and is planning to invest multiple billions in fuel cells and hydrogen, said to be about USD 25 billion.
FuelCell Energy – can ExxonMobil drive up the price?
With ExxonMobil, FuelCell Energy is already working nicely with regard to carbon capture. Now ExxonMobil has published a six-year plan that sees the corporation wanting to invest USD 15 billion in this area. As a result, I therefore believe that for FuelCell Energy there is potential for many a supplementary and major order.
The stock exchange is also guided by interests
The daily price fluctuations of the shares in the hydrogen and fuel cell sector discussed here – primarily those from the USA and Canada – give an indication that very different interests determine events here: Thus, on many days in July 2021, there was a concurrence of price declines with almost identical percentage losses in the prices of all these shares with manageable trading volumes at the same time. In other words: The buy side held back and the forces betting on falling prices had the upper hand. However, no selling pressure could be detected, which is reflected in the amount of shares traded.
Nikola Motors – Ex-Chief Executive Officer facing charges
Former CEO, company founder and major shareholder (with an estimated 20 per cent of the company still owned) Trevor Milton has been charged with making “misleading, false statements directly to the investing public” via social media and television, print and podcast interviews, according to an SEC investigation. A court has frozen assets worth US$ 100 million belonging to Trevor Milton. However, the company has nothing to do with it. Construction work at the Coolidge plant is progressing according to plan. In parallel, there were various cooperation agreements with distributors as well as service points for repairs – now already 116. In addition, Nikola is expanding the sector of consumables – electricity supply contracts for battery-electric trucks as well as for the in-house production of hydrogen. The H2 infrastructure is being built in parallel.
Bloom Energy – a company goes its own way
What a roller-coaster ride: from US$ 5 at the low in 2020 to over US$ 44 at the beginning of 2021 and now at US$ 22. I did not expect such a sharp decline, but the upward exaggeration has now been followed by a downward one, which may have been helped along by the fact that around 18.4 million shares were sold short (July 2021).
Ballard Power – 2022 will be the year of the breakthrough
The company has now been in the fuel cell business for more than 40 years, with founder Geoffrey Ballard initially relying on lithium batteries before favouring fuel cells and moving the company in that direction. Technologically, the Canadians have always been at the forefront, optimising and positioning themselves and investing massively (over US$ 1 billion) in research and development. This will now pay off step by step.
Plug Power – new manager comes from Tesla
With US$ 5 billion in the bank, Plug can position itself perfectly in the hydrogen and fuel cell theme complex. This includes its own H2 production as well as the development of alliances, such as the most recent one with Renault. And it is advisable – in my opinion – to reduce the one-sided focus on the market for forklift trucks (material handling), since the major manufacturers such as Toyota and Kion are pursuing their own hydrogen strategy in the future and the devices of future generations will already have a fuel cell system included, so that the conversion or expansion of a battery is not necessary.
Siemens Energy – One-Stop-Shopping
Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch put it clearly in an interview to members of the German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association (DWV) a few months ago: The technology group wants to be a global player in the hydrogen sector – starting with electrolysis and ending with the use of hydrogen in various markets. The group is now being expanded in this direction, although in the short term the negative influence of the wind turbine subsidiary Gamesa (67 percent share, approx. 11 billion euros stock market value; that of Siemens Energy is only approx. 9 billion euros for 22 billion euros turnover) had a negative impact on their own balance sheet – a loss of minus 307 million euros.