Chinese lithium-ion battery anode materials producer Hunan Zhongke Shinzoom will start trial production of the first phase of its Gui'an-based plant in December.
The plant, located in Gui'an city in southwest China's Guizhou province, has a designed production capacity of 100,000 t/yr of anode materials. The first phase with 65,000 t/yr of capacity is scheduled to start trial production in December, with a construction period of less than 12 months. The construction of the remaining 35,000 t/yr will depend on market conditions after the first phase begins production next year.
China's largest battery producer Contemporary Amparex Technology (CATL) invested 280mn yuan ($39mn) in the plant in February, while Shinzoom's parent company Zhongke Electric invested Yn420mn the same month, to accelerate the construction which was originally scheduled to take 24 months.
Zhongke Electric has two other anode plants under construction - the second phase of a 50,000 t/yr plant in Qujing city of southwest China's Yunnan province in end-2022 and a 30,000 t/yr plant in Tongren city in Guizhou province. Its 50,000 t/yr plant in Changsha city in south China's Hunan province started operations in May.
Zhongke Electric expects its production capacity of anode materials to rise to 257,000 t/yr by the end of the year from 92,000 t/yr in 2021, in line with the growth in the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry.
The country's NEV production totalled 4.717mn units during January-September, up by 120pc from a year earlier, with sales increasing by 110pc to 4.567mn units over the same period, according to China's Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
The country's anode material output rose to 550,000t in January-June, up by 55pc on the year, according to data from Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
China's aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 is expected to bolster demand for lithium-ion batteries and metal feedstocks, in particular cobalt, lithium, nickel and graphite in the long term.
