SHANGHAI, Sep 26 (SMM) - Lately, Xiyang County Government and Shangtai Technology Co., Ltd. held an investment and cooperation signing ceremony in Jinzhong, Shanxi Province, marking the official launch of the fourth phase of Shangtai Technology's lithium battery anode material project with a capacity of 300,000 mt/year. It is reported that after the project is completed, Shangtai Technology will have a capacity of 500,000 mt/year in Shanxi.

The project covers an area of 2,400 mu, with a total investment of 12 billion yuan and a designed production capacity of 300,000 mt/year. The project plans to construct a R&D centre, a management centre, an employee community centre, a production workshop and necessary supporting facilities. In addition, it also intends to establish an integrated production base for lithium battery anode materials that combines six basic procedures, namely raw material processing, coating and granulating, pre-carbonisation, high-temperature modification, carbonisation and finished product processing. Since Shangtai Technology's lithium battery project started construction in Xiyang County, Jinzhong in May 2018, three phases of the project have been implemented. The first phase was put under construction in May 2018, and was completed and partially put into production before December 2018 with a capacity of 30,000 mt. The second phase was launched and put into operation during 2019 and 2020, with a total capacity of 100,000 mt of lithium-ion battery anode materials. The third phase of the project is currently under construction with a planned capacity of 120,000 mt and an investment of 2 billion yuan. It started in January 2022 and is expected to be put into production in mid-September. As it is mentioned before, the fourth phase has been launched recently, which will further optimise the production layout and process of previous phases. Once it is completed, the total production capacity of Shangtai Technology Co., Ltd. in Shanxi will reach 500,000 mt.

At present, artificial graphite remains the mainstream anode materials. In 2021, driven by the explosive growth in the sales of new energy vehicles, the demand for lithium-ion battery anode materials becomes increasingly stronger. However, the production restriction across China in 2021 resulted in low operating rates of graphitisation manufacturers. Thus the short supply of graphite prompted the graphitisation processing plants to raise their conversion margins. The tight supply extended into 2022. Since the third quarter of 2022, the graphitisation capacity has been released intensively, and the increase in the self-supply rate of graphitisation by anode manufacturers and the increase in the capacity of independent graphitisation manufacturers also eased the supply shortage of graphite. However, the supply gap still existed, so graphitisation plants still charged high conversion margins. At present, the downstream power battery market is highly concentrated, and leading companies are actively acquiring upstream and downstream materials and resources to gain strong bargaining power. Therefore, for anode companies to enhance their competitiveness, reducing cost to ensure supply has become an important cornerstone, where an integrated layout plays an important part. In the early days, Shangtai Technology was engaged in graphitisation processing and thus has accumulated plenty of experience. Currently, the company boasts of distinctive advantage and competitiveness in anode material production with a 100% self-supply rate of graphitisation. The launch of the project’s new phase signals Shanghai Technology's new step into integrated layout of anode material capacity, which will further improve its competitiveness in the market.