In January 2026, the energy storage industry witnessed a dramatic incident. On January 5th, Pengcheng Infinite, an enterprise affiliated with CATL,  announced the signing of a 60GWh cell strategic cooperation agreement with Haixi Communications. Estimated at 3 billion to 6.6 billion yuan based on the industry average price, the cooperation caused a stir in the market, driving Haixi Communications' stock price up by 16.8% the next day. However, just 48 hours later, Haixi Communications clarified that the actual contract volume was only 400MWh, a shrinkage of over 99% compared to the promoted scale, making it the first major "oolong" incident in the industry at the start of the year.
    Regarded as a "strategic pawn" of CATL, Pengcheng Infinite's core management team is almost entirely from CATL, including key executives such as Chairman Lü Jian, former head of CATL's overseas base. The company has intensively obtained approximately 70 utility model patent authorizations from CATL. Founded only two years ago, Pengcheng Infinite has achieved a energy storage system shipment volume of nearly 8GWh, with a planned total production capacity of 54GWh. It has repeatedly achieved success in low-cost bidding through flexible pricing strategies and has become a test bed for CATL's new technology promotion.
     The incident exposes deep-seated industry problems. Currently, the energy storage industry is facing severe overcapacity. In 2025, the global planned production capacity exceeded 8000GWh, while the actual demand was less than 2010GWh, with an overcapacity rate of over 400%. This has led to a sharp drop in cell prices from 0.9-1.0 yuan/Wh in 2023 to 0.3-0.4 yuan/Wh in 2025. To attract capital attention, some enterprises use "strategic agreements" without mandatory binding force to create a "big order" effect, forming an industry-wide "digital competition" vicious circle.
    Regulators have taken action. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued the "Guidelines for Information Disclosure of the New Energy Industry" in February 2025, requiring listed companies to clarify the legal binding force and performance impact of strategic agreements. As policy dividends fade, the energy storage industry is shifting from "telling stories" to "competing with strength", and technological innovation and real delivery capabilities will become the key to enterprises' survival. Enterprises such as Haixi Communications are also accelerating their layout in the energy storage field, with their 5GWh energy storage production line in Heze, Shandong expected to be put into operation in February 2026.

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