Amid the recall wave, "power bank freedom" will become a luxury. How can brands like Anker and Romoss break through?

In just one week, power banks, which were almost ubiquitous, have become the focus of controversy from being a necessity.

Since the beginning of this year, there have been multiple incidents of lithium battery products such as power banks carried by passengers catching fire and smoking on airplanes. The State Administration for Market Regulation has revoked or suspended the 3C certifications of multiple power bank and battery cell manufacturers.

As a result, the 3C certification certificates of multiple power bank products, including those from brands such as Romoss, Anker, Xiaomi, Baseus, and Ugreen, have also been suspended. Most of the certificate status change times started from early June.

In this situation, brands such as Romoss and Anker Innovations have successively issued recall announcements for their power bank products. The recall quantities in the Chinese market are 490,000 and 713,000 units respectively. This is the largest recall of defective power bank products in China's history.

Even some well - known 3C digital products are affected due to the lack of 3C certification for the batteries, and they do not meet the requirements for air transportation. In this incident, the main responsibility probably lies with the battery cell supply chain. However, how the brand owners can overcome the crisis and regain consumers' trust is the "highlight" in the next stage.

Upstream suppliers take the lead in "throwing the table"

Initially, the recall of products from multiple power bank brands left many consumers confused.

"As soon as I mentioned power banks, the courier said they couldn't accept them. They said there was a risk of spontaneous combustion," Xiaotian, who works in Chengdu, told the author. After seeing the news about Romoss's recall, she remembered that the model she had recently purchased met the recall requirements. She followed Romoss's recall process, but several courier companies refused to accept Romoss power banks.

Romoss quickly provided consumers with a harmless disposal method overnight: first drain the power bank completely, then soak it in salt water for 24 hours to completely discharge the power bank and make it safely passivated. Record a video after the operation and send it to the customer service. After confirmation, you will get a refund.

Many netizens on social platforms have also reported that they have encountered the situation of couriers refusing to accept power banks. Some courier companies have even suspended the delivery services for mobile phone batteries, lithium batteries, and storage batteries.

Actually, the "key player" that triggered this global power bank recall is Apex, a mainstream battery cell supplier. As a supplier to power bank brands such as Romoss, Anker, Ugreen, Xiaomi, and Baseus, Apex had all its battery 3C certifications suspended recently.

Under the chain reaction, each brand had to urgently recall defective power banks.

Anker Innovations, a power bank brand, explained in detail in the announcement: "In the recent quality and safety inspection, it was found that some batches of industry - common battery cells from a certain supplier had unauthorized raw material changes, which may lead to the failure of the diaphragm insulation of a very small number of products after long - term cyclic use, and then cause safety hazards such as overheating and even combustion."

That is to say, the supplier did not make a mistake in the process, but "arbitrarily changed the diaphragm material" subjectively, which led to quality defects in the battery cells.

The diaphragm is the "safety valve" of lithium - ion batteries. It has functions such as preventing direct contact between the positive and negative electrodes to cause short - circuits, thermal fuse protection, and maintaining charge - discharge cycles. Once the diaphragm fails, risks such as short - circuits and spontaneous combustion will follow.

Let's turn to Apex, the initiator of this incident. It is a company established in 2014, jointly funded by a wholly - owned subsidiary of Apex in the United States and Wuxi Industrial Development Group Co., Ltd. It is mainly engaged in the production and sales of consumer - grade lithium - ion batteries and their components.

In addition to Romoss and Anker, Apex has also supplied battery cells to many leading power bank brands such as Xiaomi, Ugreen, and Baseus. It is the largest supplier of flexible - pack batteries in the domestic power bank field.

According to the official website of the State - owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Wuxi City, from the official production in October 2016 to July 2023, Apex had produced more than 100 million lithium batteries in total. According to the public information from the Wuxi Taxation Bureau of the State Taxation Administration, Xu Zifu, the legal representative of Apex, revealed that the company could produce an additional 60 million lithium - ion and sodium - ion products in 2024, with an output value of over 1 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 25%.

Many people in the power bank supply chain said that many brands choose Apex as their supplier because Apex's battery cells have the highest current energy density. Its unique silicon nanowire anode is called a disruptive technology. It can charge 80% in 6 minutes and is one of the few suppliers that can meet both high energy density and fast - charging requirements while ensuring portability.

For basic - level power banks priced around 100 yuan, which aim for large capacity and portability, Apex's battery cells are quite cost - effective if they want to maintain profits.

But why did such a leading supplier privately change the raw materials of the battery cells?

The intensifying "involution" of price wars leads to a "lack of core" situation

The collective failure of power banks may also be related to the continuous involution in the entire industry.

In recent years, the involution in the power bank industry mainly focuses on two aspects. One is to compete in fast - charging efficiency, the second is to see which one is more convenient to carry in terms of size and weight under the same capacity, and the third is price comparison.

The fast - charging power has increased from 65W and 90W to the current 120W, while the product volume has become smaller. A 120W fast - charging means that a large amount of electrical energy needs to be converted and stored in a small battery cell with high efficiency within a few minutes.

On e - commerce platforms, the price of some 20,000mAh ultra - fast - charging power banks produced by white - label manufacturers can be as low as 30 yuan. During major e - commerce promotions, the prices of 20,000mAh power bank products from brands such as Baseus and Romoss once dropped to over 80 yuan. Moreover, in order to meet users' pursuit of "fast - charging" and under the influence of increasing market competition, more and more power bank products on the market have increased their output power from 65W to 130W.

However, high output power, reduced volume, and extremely low prices conflict with the high - cost requirements for lithium - battery safety. Brand owners require cost reduction, and suppliers also want to make profits. Where can the profit be squeezed from? Either save costs or outsource to some small and medium - sized factories. Therefore, many factories have to make trade - offs in the internal materials that consumers are not likely to directly notice.

Especially the battery cells, as the main hardware cost in power banks, usually account for more than 50% of the cost, making them the first choice for brand owners to cut costs.

The price of new battery cells commonly used in mobile power banks is between 10 and 20 yuan per piece. If inferior raw materials are used, such as using old batteries from recycled and scrapped power banks or new energy vehicles as battery cells, the cost can even be significantly reduced to one or two yuan.

What is saved in this way is exactly the key part. Under the double hidden dangers of battery cell defects (such as process and material violations) and out - of - control supply chain management, quality problems of mobile power banks begin to occur frequently.

Previously, there might only be heat. After the space is compressed, this heat has nowhere to dissipate in the narrow space and accumulates at key nodes to form continuous high - temperature points. The volume and contact area of the heat - dissipation materials are compressed, and the heat - conduction efficiency is greatly reduced, making it more difficult to control the temperature rise and significantly eroding the safety margin.

Therefore, there is a large price difference between high - quality and low - quality battery cells with the same apparent capacity on the market. Consumers often encounter problems during use but have difficulty knowing where the problems lie.

Recently, market news reported that Apex outsourced the production of some batches of battery cells to a contract manufacturer in Jiangxi. To reduce costs, the contract manufacturer illegally used inferior diaphragm materials, which significantly increased the risk of failure of the positive and negative electrode diaphragms in the batteries. In a high - temperature environment, it is very likely to cause the batteries to overheat, catch fire, or even explode.

Actually, there has always been supervision over power banks. According to the results of the national supervision and random inspection of product quality by the State Administration for Market Regulation, from 2020 to 2023, the non - compliance rates of online - sold power banks were 19.8%, 25.0%, 35.4%, and 44.4% respectively. It was not until 2024 that the non - compliance rate began to decline significantly.

Market data shows that the global mobile power bank market scale exceeded 120 billion yuan in 2024, and the Chinese market is the largest consumer market for mobile power banks in the world, accounting for 38.7%. Since August 1, 2024, mobile power banks have been included in the CCC mandatory product certification (commonly known as 3C certification) catalog, and this standard has been officially implemented.

This incident has exposed a large number of problems with power banks. It can also be seen that any problem in the supply chain management of a brand will trigger a chain reaction, and the entire industry needs to be re - examined.

How can power bank enterprises save themselves?

Anker Innovations, one of the leading brands listed on the Growth Enterprise Market in 2020, reported in its 2024 annual report that its revenue from charging and energy - storage business was 12.667 billion yuan, accounting for half of the total revenue. In August 2024, during a live - stream call between Trump and Musk, netizens found that the power bank Trump used was also made by Anker.

However, since 96% of Anker Innovations' revenue comes from overseas markets, its first recall was on June 13, with a recall quantity of over 1.15 million units. Some consumers reported that even Anker power banks purchased from Amazon Japan were included in the recall.

It can be seen that the two recall events may damage its overseas brand image, and consumers may question the safety of its products, which will further affect its sales and market share in the overseas market.

To reduce the impact, Anker Innovations quickly stated that the overall impact of this year's power bank recall was limited and controllable, and the recall losses had a limited impact on the company's profits. Currently, the mobile power bank category accounts for about 10% of Anker's total revenue. The 7 recalled models are just a small part of the more than 100 power bank models on sale globally. The 3C certification status and sales of other models are normal.

In the battery cell supply chain, Anker Innovations has recently reached a strategic cooperation with CATL New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (ALT) and locked in the supply of 45 million high - quality battery cells in the first batch.

Another brand, Romoss, has suspended its entire power bank business according to relevant media reports. This decision has led to the removal of all its related products from major online platforms. Some industry insiders estimate that this may cause the company to lose 100 million to 200 million yuan in monthly revenue.

Looking to the future, Romoss needs to re - apply for 3C certification and conduct strict product testing again. After the rectification is completed, Romoss needs to adjust its marketing strategy. The online sales scale will be significantly reduced and deeply purified, and the extensive online agency model that it used to rely on will be severely rectified.

After this incident, it is not easy to rebuild users' trust. When "high cost - effectiveness" and "safety hazards" coexist, it weakens the brand's recognition.

In addition, with the strong actions of the regulatory authorities, on June 18, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced on its official website the revision plan for the "Safety Technical Specifications for Mobile Power Banks". It adds or tightens test requirements such as over - charging, needle - piercing, squeezing, and thermal abuse, and proposes requirements for key materials such as positive and negative electrodes, diaphragms, and electrolytes that directly affect battery safety.

Brands need to pay more attention to long - term investment, screen and manage contract manufacturers and raw materials, improve the overall control from design to production, and gradually rebuild consumers' trust.

After this round of rectification, the industry may change. On the one hand, the technical threshold will be raised, and technologies such as fast - charging and high energy density will become core competitiveness. On the other hand, the price system will be re - structured. Extremely low - priced products will not gain consumers' trust, and the average price of compliant products may rise to the range of 50 - 80 yuan. Finally, the channel transformation will accelerate, and exclusive charging services will be developed in special scenarios such as airports and high - speed rail stations.

Generally speaking, this incident has accelerated the tightening of supervision and technological iteration, promoting the power bank industry to shift from "price competition" to "quality competition". Ultimately, brands that focus on safety and innovation will benefit.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Whale Business" (ID: bizwhale), author: Hu Duzhi. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.