A new battery alliance of five lead-acid industry players is seeking to raise visibility in other chemistry markets such as zinc and flow while at the same time providing a defence against irrelevance by being too small.
The five, called the Energy Storage Equipment Manufacturing Alliance, or ESEMA, comprise Sorfin Yoshimura, MAC Engineering, CMWTEC Technologie, Digatron and Kustan. They all have long experience and have incorporated a company with a 20% stake each.
Nick Hennen, vice president at Kustan, told BEST the five complement each other well. “CMW does vacuum filling and other filling operations and finishing lines. MAC does assembly equipment and has skills in robotics. We do electrolyte systems, whether or not it’s lead-acid or otherwise. Sorfin is a materials company and also does project management. Digatron does the power electronics. So you put us all together and we have the capabilities of maybe 70% of everything that’s needed to design a full production facility if we wanted.”
Other companies can be brought in on a project basis, he said.
The next step is to identify partner organisations to raise visibility and to tackle pains in the lead-acid industry, he said.
“That can’t be dealt with by one entity, but also because we’re all lead-acid guys, generally speaking, with the exception of probably Digatron, is to take our skill sets and apply them to other chemistries and other opportunities.
“And the biggest deal is most of the funding available through the EU, through the UK or through the United States Department of Energy has a minimum threshold for participation. And our companies are too small individually to be able to even participate in a project that’s funded. So by putting our companies together and then having key strategic partners, we’ll be able to go after some of those funded opportunities.”
He said ESEMA is already working on its first project, a new machine for the lead-acid market. He declined to give details.
The alliance is also defensive in purpose. Hennen added: “Frankly, I think we’re all relatively healthy today as individual companies. But what we have identified as small business owners is that there is probably another consolidation in the industry coming. And that if we don’t start working together, the larger players, whether or not it’s on the lithium side or on the lead-acid side, will make us irrelevant.”
Scott Fink, president of Sorfin Yoshimura, told BEST: “I think the idea is for all of our organisations that have grown and blossomed through the lead battery space, in the same ways that our customers, the end users, have tried to become agnostic to chemistry rather than be lead-acid battery makers.
“They wanted to become more energy storage providers and then have different solutions based on customer application.”
ESEMA members would like to have products and services for any chemistry. “Therefore, we can cater to our existing customers as they evolve, as well as hopefully be opportunistic to get involved in new industries.”
He sees demand for energy storage of all chemistries being strong for decades, including first and foremost lead.
Photo: Scott Fink
