China’s Brunp Recycling is planning to build a 100,000 t/yr nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) lithium-ion battery cathode production project in Ningde city in southeast China’s Fujian province.
Construction will be completed in five years in two phases, costing no more than 9.13bn yuan ($1.4bn).
Firm demand from the battery sector has prompted lithium salts producers to boost production over the past few years, in line with China’s fast-growing new energy vehicle (NEV) market.
The country produced 304,000 of NEVs during January-March 2019, up by 103pc from a year earlier, while sales rose by 110pc to 299,000 units. The country is forecast to produce and sell 1.5mn NEVs in 2019, according to data from China’s ministry of industry and information technology.
Brunp is a subsidiary of China’s battery producer Contemporary Amparex Technology (CATL). Brunp earlier this month said it will purchase NCM ternary precursors used in lithium-ion batteries from Chinese battery material producer Green Eco-Manufacture under a contract that runs from this year until the end of 2021.
CATL will also form a joint venture with Chinese automotive manufacturer FAW to build a plant to produce power batteries for electric vehicles.
Source: argusmedia
