Chinese lead-acid battery manufacturer Tianneng has reportedly set its sights on expanding production capacity to another country in southern or southeast Asia— while stepping up domestic capacity by 20% this year to meet electric vehicle demand.
According to Reuters, the company wants to capitalise on increasing demand for batteries to power electric scooters and cars in the region. Tianneng is considering setting up a plant “with an annual production capacity of at least 100,000 tonnes” in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, according to the news agency.
Tianneng’s chairman Tianren Zhang was quoted as saying that a number of small and medium-sized Chinese battery enterprises had already moved some operations to other countries in the region because China’s 4% consumption tax on lead-acid batteries was “hard to bear”.
Zhang was quoted as saying: “We have to evaluate the place, how many waste batteries there are and develop capacity based on the amount of raw materials in the market”. He said a decision will be announced this year.
Zhang said he expected Tianneng, which also makes lithium-ion batteries, to “maintain annual sales growth of 20-30%”.
