The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) is to invest CNY10 billion (US$1.5bn) in building a new lithium battery plant in the country.
State-owned AVIC said the plant in Xiamen, in China’s southeastern Fujian Province, will have an eventual annual production capacity of 20GWh across a 570 square metre site.
The two-phase construction period will start in the third quarter of this year and initial operations will begin in 2020— after which the second phase of construction will begin.
AVIC currently manufactures ternary and lithium iron phosphate batteries for applications ranging from EVs to energy storage systems, but the company did not specify what products would be produced in Xiamen.
The company currently has production centres in Changzhou, in southern Jiangsu Province and Luoyang, in central China’s Henan province, with a combined annual production capacity of 11GWh.
AVIC said last month its goal is to achieve an overall battery manufacturing capacity of 100GWh per annum within five years.
