Leoch International Technology is to bring two new lead-acid battery plants on stream this year in Vietnam— and has revealed plans to expand in Europe including through acquisitions.
The Hong Kong-listed firm said one of its Vietnam plants will start delivering reserve power batteries by mid-2019, while the other will be delivering SLI batteries by the end of the third quarter.
Construction of both plants is “in full gear”, Leoch said in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange announcement. “The design production capacity of these two factories will be more than double the current total overseas production capacity with opportunity for future expansion.”
And the group said it intends to put “more resources into accelerating business development and growth in Europe for the next few years”.
Leoch’s announcement comes just a year after the group formed a joint venture (DBS Leoch) with UK-based battery distributor DBS Energy.
Meanwhile, Leoch is building a lithium-ion batteries factory in China’s northern Anhui Province. The plant will eventually provide “at least 4GWh design production capacity to produce various lithium-ion battery products used for business applications in the reserve power and motive power markets”.
Work on the 150,000 square metre site began in December 2018 and more than one third of the designed production capacity is expected to start operation by the fourth quarter of 2019.
Leoch said the US-China trade war had suppressed the group’s business growth in the US market in 2018, while the “abnormal hike” of the lead price in China “hindered growth”.
However, Leoch said lead battery export sales grew by 9.7% in 2018 to CNY3.4 billion (US$506 million) compared to just over CNY3bn in the previous year.