Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) will invest up to RMB23.8bn (USD3.5bn) in an integrated new material industry production base to recover waste batteries and make lithium materials, as reported by Caixin on January 30. Guangdong Bangpu Recycling Technology Co Ltd, a subsidiary of CATL, will invest and build the project in Foshan city in Guangdong province. The project will include recycling facilities capable of recovering 500,000 tons of waste battery materials, along with a production base of ternary and lithium iron phosphate cathode materials and negative electrode recycled graphite.

CATL doubled its installed battery capacity to 165.7 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in the first 11 months of 2022 from a year earlier, taking up 37.1% of the global electric vehicle (EV) cell market. By investing in recycling businesses, the company aims to secure raw material supply amid the surge in lithium price. In November 2022, lithium prices hit USD80,800 per ton, a 1,000% rise from 2021. Moreover, the battery recycling market is prospering with the large-scale decommissioning of first-generation electric cars. According to China Automotive Technology and Research Center, China retired over 320,000 tons of batteries in 2021, expected to hit 780,000 tons in 2025. CATL Chairman, Robin Zeng, estimated that the recycled materials from retired batteries will meet most market demands by 2035. At present, the recovery rate of nickel and cobalt of lithium batteries is 99%, and the recovery rate of lithium is over 90%.

https://www.caixin.com/2023-01-30/101992778.html

https://pandaily.com/catl-invests-3-52b-in-battery-recycling-base/

https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/catl-kicks-off-production-at-western-europe-first-large-scale-battery-plant

A Brief 2022 Lithium Sector Review