Chinese lithium battery companies speed up expanding global footprint

A robot works at a lithium battery factory in Tangshan, north China's Hebei Province, Nov. 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao)

A dozen of Chinese lithium battery companies have announced their plans for investing in Europe and Southeast Asia since the second quarter to meet global demand from electric vehicles and energy storage, reported the Xinhua-run Shanghai Securities News. 

Chengxin Lithium announced on July 31 that it planed to raise no more than 2.3 billion yuan by issuing global depository receipt (GDR) for the development of a 60,000 tonne lithium project in Indonesia and other lithium processing projects.  

Likewise, EVE Energy Co., Ltd. (EVE, 300014.SZ) said on June 8 that it would invest no more than 9.97 billion yuan in building a production base in Debrecen, Hungary for producing lithium-ion batteries for passenger cars.

Chinese companies also expand their global business presence by collaborating with overseas upstream enterprises. On July 28, Beijing Easpring Material Technology Co., Ltd. (Easpring, 300073.SZ) signed a cooperation agreement with Finnish Minerals Group and its wholly-owned subsidiary Finnish Battery Chemicals Oy on establishing a joint venture (JV) in Finland. According to the agreement, the JV will be responsible for the construction and operation of the first phase of Easpring's European new material production base.

Currently, new energy products represented by lithium batteries, solar cells and electric passenger vehicles have become a new engine driving China's export growth. The combined exports of the three types of products in the first half surged 61.6 percent year on year, driving the overall export growth by 1.8 percentage points, showed data from the General Administration of Customs. (Edited by Su Dan, sudan@xinhua.org)