A Chinese company is building a lithium-ion battery recycling joint venture in South Korea— in response to China’s ban on solid waste imports, BEST Battery Briefing can reveal.
China’s Anhua Taisen Recycling Technology said its decision to launch the project, in partnership with South Korean e-waste recycler NH Recytech, was driven by China’s decision last year to halt imports of more than 20 types of solid waste.
Taisen CEO Jayden Goh told BBB the joint venture with NH Recytech— named ‘Dr. LiB – Global Alliance’— will operate on a site provided by the Korean firm in Pyeongtaek and have the capacity to recycle 20,000 tons of used lithium batteries annually.
“After China’s change to its importation laws in 2017 we changed our logistics strategy to South Korea to supply companies from overseas,” Goh said.
The Pyeongtaek facility— in which Taisen is investing CNY200 million ($30m)—will produce 2,400 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate for the South Korean market each year, Goh said. Additionally, there will be 15,000 tons of nickel hydroxide and cobalt manganese produced for export to China for further processing into cobalt sulfate and nickel sulfate.
NH Recytech, which also works with South Korean battery manufacturers LG Chem, Samsung SDI and German automaker Mercedes-Benz, is arranging the necessary business permit for Taisen to operate the facility after it is completed in mid-2019.
Goh said the joint venture will enable his company to seek out new markets for recycling in Europe, Canada, South America, the US and Asia. However, Goh said Taisen had halted earlier plans to build a lithium recycling plant in Vietnam— because domestic laws there had also prohibited imports of foreign waste.
Taisen, which also has a partnership with Chinese lithium battery maker BYD and telecoms equipment company Huawei, has a recycling plant in China’s southern Hunan Province that can recycle 6,000 tons of battery scrap annually.
Goh will be among key speakers at September’s China International Battery Recycling 2018 conference in Shanghai.
The move is the latest battery-related investment deal seen as easing economic tensions between China and South Korea. Earlier this year, a subsidiary of Chinese mining company Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt signed a deal with LG Chem to launch two new joint venture companies.
