China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has announced the first batch of companies meeting the State ‘Lead-acid Battery Industry Access Conditions’. The regulations require the capacity of new, reorganised and expanded lead-acid battery manufacturers can be no less than 500 000 kVAh.
The first six firms to meet the industry access standards are: Wuxi Pufa Power Supply Corporation, Jiangsu Weisheng Power Supply Corporation, Jiangsu Suzhong Battery Science and Technology Corporation, and East Penn International (Wujiang) Battery Corporation, all in Jiangsu province; Jiangxi Xinwei Power Energy Science and Technology Corporation in Jiangxi province, and Camel Group Xiangyang Storage Battery Corporation in Hubei province.
A source in China told BEST: “The medium and large sized factories aren’t worried about the assessment. They think sooner or later they will pass, because the regulations, even the laws, are flexible in China. So this announcement is not viewed seriously in the industry yet.”
The assessment work began in July 2012; since then, many factories have already passed the environmental inspection, which is the precondition for the new industry access.
The access conditions and other measures to clamp down on smaller Chinese lead-acid battery manufacturers have resulted in a sharp reduction in the number of manufacturers to around 300, down from 3000 just ten years ago. The first batch consisted of nine factories, of which only the six named above passed the accessing conditions.
Factories that do not meet the access conditions by the end of 2015 will be shut down, or have their production licence revoked.
