Chinese battery producer Contemporary Amparex Technology (CATL) will invest a total of 39bn yuan ($5.97bn) to raise its output capacity for power and storage lithium-ion batteries.
The firm will invest no more than Yn17bn to build a production plant in the Fuding county-level city of Ningde prefecture-level city in southeast China's Fujian province. The project will be developed in two phases, with the first phase expected to be completed in 26 months. The second phase will start construction within two years after the first phase is completed.
CATL will also invest Yn12bn to raise output capacity at its production facility in Liyang city in east China's Jiangsu province. Construction is scheduled to take 24 months.
The firm plans to additionally invest Yn10bn to expand capacity at its production complex in Yibin city in southwest China's Sichuan province. Construction will be completed in two phases, with the first phase scheduled to take 26 months. Construction of the second phase will start within two years after the first phase is completed.
Other details, including the size of the new capacity, were undisclosed. The three new projects are expected to raise CATL's total battery capacity by 70GWh based on prevailing construction costs, according to market participants.
CATL has been ramping up its production capacity in recent years to meet buoyant demand from the fast-growing new energy vehicle market. It started building a 12 GWh/yr power battery plant in Yibin city in October, which is scheduled to start production in 2022.
The firm in February started building a 45 GWh/yr production plant for power and energy storage lithium batteries in Cheliwan, Ningde.
CATL has plans to invest in companies in the upstream and downstream sectors of the battery industrial chain in and outside of China, with total investments of no more than Yn19.67bn. It is also exploring lithium resources in domestic and global markets. The firm in September announced that it will acquire an 8pc equity stake in Canada-based lithium brine explorer Neo Lithium.
China's newly installed capacity of power batteries reached 5.9GWh in October, up by 44pc from a year earlier. Production rose by 47.9pc to 9.9GWh over the same period, according to China's automotive manufacturers association.
