Australian flow battery firm Redflow Limited has started installing equipment for a battery production line at its new factory in Thailand— putting the firm on track to launch initial operations in the country by the end of the year.
The announcement follows Redflow’s formation of a new entity— Redflow (Thailand) Limited— to create a base in the country to serve its Southeast Asia business.
Redflow has taken a three-year lease on a 1,500 square-metre production building on the Hemaraj Chonburi Industrial Estate, which is part of a free trade zone 110km southeast of Bangkok and 25km from the Laem Chabang deep sea container port.
Redflow confirmed on 26 October it had obtained all Thai regulatory approvals needed to run the plant. The company said engineers from its Brisbane office had been sent to Thailand to help its manufacturing partner MPTS set up and commission production equipment. Malaysia-based MPTS is a long-term supplier of a core component of Redflow’s battery stack.
Redflow manufactures the world’s smallest zinc-bromine flow batteries, marketing them as ZBM2 batteries for commercial, industrial, telecoms and grid-scale energy storage, and as ZCell for residential energy storage in Australia.
The decision to set up production in Thailand followed a strategic review under which Redflow set out plans to shift manufacturing from Mexico to closer lucrative markets in Southeast Asia and reduce supply chain costs.
Redflow CEO Richard Aird is pictured (centre, right) shaking hands with David Nadone— the CEO and president of Hemaraj Land and Development Public Co., Ltd., a WHA Corporation subsidiary.