Chinese Industry Brief: CATL inaugurates 120 GWh lithium-ion battery factory

Lithium-ion battery manufacturer CATL announced that its largest factory in Ningde city, Fujian Province, has started production on Wednesday. The manufacturing facility has an annual production capacity of 120 GWh. In 2020, CATL shipped batteries with a total capacity of 51.7 GWh. Along with the rapid growth of China’s EV market, the company has boosted its planned battery capacity, including capacity under production and to be built, to over 300 GWh.

Solar manufacturer Guangdong Aiko Solar Energy Technology has signed long-term purchasing contracts with several PV wafer manufacturers including Gokin Solar, Shuangliang Eco-Energy, and Jiangsu Meike. Through the three contracts, Aiko Solar secured a total of 4,515,000,000 wafers for the next three years.

Polysilicon supplier and solar cell maker Tongwei said its proposal to issue convertible bonds worth RMB12 billion (US$1.88 billion) was approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). The net proceeds will be used for polysilicon capacity expansion at factories in Sichuan and Inner Mongolia and a 15 GW ingot and wafer manufacturing facility.

Polysilicon manufacturer GCL-Poly on Wednesday completed a shares issuance to six new shareholders which it is expected will raise a net HK$4.99 billion (US$640 million). The company said HK$4.55 billion (US$583 million) would help finance two production facilities for the company’s granular silicon, which GCL claims are less energy-intensive than conventional fluidized bed reactor manufacturing methods. The company said HK$2.57 billion (US$329 million) of the fundraising proceeds would go towards a granular silicon project being developed in an unspecified location by its Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon Technology Development Co Ltd business unit and HK$1.98 billion (US$254 million) would go to a similar fab being developed in Inner Mongolia. With the issuance of the shares having amounted to 7.52% of an enlarged GCL-Poly, the remaining cash will be kept for working capital.