A strategic cooperation agreement will see Chinese battery manufacturer CATL buy its lithium-ion battery cathode material from domestic producer Yibin Libaode until 2030.
CATL will have a preference to buy 200,000t of lithium-ion battery cathode material in the next decade, including no less than 15,000t this year and no less than 25,000t next year.
The strategic cooperation agreement was signed by the two firms and domestic new energy company Yibin Tianyuan Group, which owns Yibin Libaode.
Yibin Tianyuan has a design capacity of 20,000 t/yr for lithium-ion battery cathode material.
It is building a 10,000 t/yr production facility, which is set to be commissioned by the end of this year as the company moves to reach its long-term target of having 100,000 t/yr of production capacity.
CATL unveiled plans in January to invest 39billion yuan ($5.4 billion) to raise its overall capacity to a reported 70GWh by building a new plant in China and expanding capacity at two existing facilities in the country.
In February, the firm said it was to build the fifth and sixth phases of its power battery production complex in Yibin city in southwest China’s Sichuan province.
Construction will be completed in two phases, taking up to 26 months each.
Last year, CATL secured a lithium-ion power battery supply deal with to US electric vehicle producer Tesla.
It also plans to build a battery cell plant in Indonesia to start operations in 2024.
