Inventory of a week of new energy industry news: Times Geely Yibin project successfully put into ope

COVID-19 is just a quick visit, life and work go on! This week's new energy industry information, ZESHENG's editors continue to inventory for you: Times Geely Yibin project successfully put into production! REPT to be listed! LG Energy invested 4 trillion to expand production capacity!

[Times Geely Yibin project successfully put into production]

On December 19, the first phase of the Era Geely Power Battery Yibin project was successfully put into full production. Luo Qiang, Vice Governor of Sichuan Province, visited the site. Fang Cunhao, Secretary of Yibin Municipal Committee, An Conghui, President of Geely Holding Group and CEO of ZEEKR Intelligent Technology, and Zeng Yuqun, Chairman of CATL attended and spoke at the ceremony. Liao Wenbin, mayor of Yibin, presided over the commissioning ceremony.

Times Geely is a power battery manufacturing and service platform jointly created by CATL and ZEEKR. The construction of Yibin Power Battery Project started in October 2020, with a planned annual capacity of 15GWh, a total investment of no more than RMB 8 billion, and a planned area of about 500 mu, and has been in full operation for 14 months.

In the future, CATL and ZEEKR will give full play to their strengths in various fields, displaying their respective strengths in technology and combining their swords in manufacturing, to actively tackle the challenges of the new energy market together, and strive to promote the green, clean and intelligent transformation of regional energy, and make greater contributions to the cause of global carbon neutrality and sustainable development.

[REPT to be listed]

Another lithium giant to sprint to the market! Recently, REPT formally submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and intends to list it on the main board. This means that the top ten domestic power battery companies in terms of installed capacity will all be listed on the capital market.

REPT disclosed that the funds raised by the listing will be mainly used for lithium battery capacity expansion, advanced lithium battery, materials, and production process research and development, as well as repayment of bank loans and other aspects. However, it has not disclosed the specific amount of the planned fund-raising. However, sources indicate that REPT is seeking to raise about $3 billion at a valuation of nearly $30 billion.

Backed by the world's largest nickel producer, REPT, which was established just five years ago, is developing rapidly. In the first 11 months of this year, REPT ranked tenth in the domestic power battery installation, which can be regarded as a dark horse in the power battery field.

Background

Qingshan Group established Rept Energy in 2017 with the intention of establishing a full industrial chain from mineral resources mining to battery application. In April this year, Ruipu Energy completed its shareholding system transformation and changed its name to REPT at the same time.

According to REPT, our controlling shareholder, the Castle Peak Group, has built the world's largest stainless steel and nickel business from scratch in 20 and 10 years respectively, and we, therefore, enjoy the unique resource integration capability and synergy of the whole industry chain granted by it.

According to the Frost & Sullivan report, Castle Peak is the world's largest producer of nickel and stainless steel by production volume in 2021. The publicly disclosed information of Aoyama Group shows that its nickel production reaches 600,000 tons in 2021, while the global nickel production is 2.7 million tons in 2021, and Aoyama Group accounts for about a quarter of the global nickel production. Through direct control or equity investments, Aoyama Group is also strategically expanding into several categories along the lithium-ion battery industry chain, including mining and refining nickel, lithium and cobalt, as well as producing cathode materials, anode materials, diaphragms and electrolytes.

According to the Li-ion battery installed capacity calculation table, REPT has significantly increased from 0.22 GWh in 2019 to 3.3 GWh in 2021, with a compound annual growth rate of 287.3%, which is the fastest growth rate of installed capacity among the top 10 domestic battery companies.

By the end of November, REPT's cumulative domestic battery installation this year was 4.04GWh, with a market share of 1.56%.

According to the new vehicle announcement data, since its establishment, REPT has been supporting the battery of the group of vehicle enterprises customers including Xiamen Golden Dragon, Yundu, Xugong, Dongfeng, China Motor Electric, Shangtong Wuling, Yaxing Bus, Shen Long Bus, Zero Run, Geely, Yutong, etc. 20, supporting products covering buses, passenger cars, trucks, special vehicles, among which buses and passenger cars are the main products.

In addition to power batteries, REPT's energy storage battery products are also developing well. The prospectus shows that from 2019-2021, REPT's energy storage battery sales are more than its power battery sales, and by the end of June, this year's energy storage battery sales were 2.5 GWh and power battery sales were 2.2 GWh.

[LG Energy invests 4 trillion to expand production capacity]

On Dec. 19, South Korean battery maker LG New Energy said in a statement that it plans to invest 4 trillion won (about 21.32 billion yuan) between 2022 and 2026 to expand the production capacity of its battery plant in Ochang, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, according to foreign media reports.

LG New Energy said the money will be used to expand the production capacity of cylindrical batteries at the Ochang plant. New innovative technologies, such as smart factories, will also be applied. In addition, the project is expected to employ an additional 1,800 people.

In addition to expanding production in Korea, LG New Energy and General Motors will invest an additional $275 million in a joint venture battery plant in Tennessee, U.S., to increase production by more than 40 percent, according to news on Dec. 5.

The additional investment will reportedly increase the joint venture's annual battery capacity from 35GWh to 50GWh.