CATL Advances $4.4B New Energy Industrial Park Project

Leading Chinese battery firm CATL held an event on September 27 regarding trial production of the Brunp Recycling Project and the commencement of a new phase in the CATL-BRUNP Integrated New Energy Industrial Park, which has total investment of 32 billion yuan ($4.42 billion).

Trial production of the Brunp Recycling Project includes a waste ferrous lithium phosphate recycling line, which is a key component of battery recycling. The CATL-Brunp Project that has recently commenced is an important part of the CATL-BRUNP Integrated New Energy Industry Project. It also bears the task of releasing production capacity in the future. It will realize integrated and intensive coordination with the three initiatives of the Brunp Recycling Project and Brunp-Yihua Project, and it will build a closed cycle for the whole life cycle of batteries.

The CATL-BRUNP Integrated New Energy Industry Project focuses on anode material of new energy vehicle batteries and integrates “phosphate rocks, raw material, precursor, anode materials, battery recycling” and other multi-link businesses, covering the whole life cycle of batteries. On December 4, 2021, the project officially commenced.

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The project covers an area of about 5,500 mu (around 366.7 hectares). It is planned to build an ultra-large-scale production base with an annual output of 360,000 tons of iron phosphate, 220,000 tons of ferrous lithium phosphate, 180,000 tons of ternary precursors and materials, 40,000 tons of lithium cobaltate, 40,000 tons of recycled graphite and 300,000 tons of batteries for recycling. It is estimated that it will be put into production in 2025 and will be able to provide battery cathode materials for more than 4 million new energy vehicles.

According to an announcement previously made by CATL, the project will be implemented by Brunp Recycling and its holding subsidiary.

Public data shows that Brunp Recycling was established in 2005 and is a leading domestic recycling enterprise in the used batteries field. It focuses on recycling, resources and materials businesses. By acquiring the company in 2015, CATL officially entered into the battery recycling field.

With the continuously increasing market share of new energy vehicles, the battery recycling industry is seeing rapid development. At the same time, the rising price of raw materials has further catalyzed the rise of the recycling industry. CATL is also continuously increasing its investment.

In August, CATL and Chinese automaker FAW Jiefang jointly established a joint venture, which is dubbed “Jiefang Shidai New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.,” to fully cooperate in the seperation of cars and batteries, car rentals, second-hand cars and battery recycling services, among other aspects. In September, the battery giant signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Xiexin Holdings, a leading Chinese energy company. The two sides plan to cooperate in battery swap stations for heavy duty trucks, the cascade utilization of power batteries and the recycling of power batteries.

It is worth noting that CATL established a new subsidiary on September 13 in Beijing. This new company’s business scope includes engineering and technology research and tests, as well as the R&D of new energy technology.