News Roundup for New Energy Market

SHANGHAI, Dec 29 (SMM)  –  A weekly update on the trending stories from the New Energy sector.

1. Vesna Prodanovic, CEO of Rio Tinto's Serbia branch, said that Rio Tinto planed to suspend its Jadar lithium mine project in Serbia after the municipality cancelled a plan to allocate the land for the mine. The miner hoped to develop the mine near Loznica in the western Jadar valley, which is one of the main agricultural centres of Serbia and accounts for about one-fifth of the total agricultural output.

Jadar plans to produce about 58,000 mt of lithium carbonate by 2029, which will make Rio Tinto one of the world's top ten lithium producers, but there is no hope for commissioning in the short term. According to the official news of Rio Tinto Group on December 21, the company intends to acquire the Rincon lithium mine project of Argentina Rincon Mining for $825 million, and will continue to develop lithium resources.

2. On the morning of December 19, a ceremony to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the construction of the Xiamen Special Economic Zone and the commencement of the new lithium-ion battery project of Xiamen Times was held in Xiamen. New Lithium-ion Battery Project (Phase I) of CATL is located in the Hongtang North Area of Tongxiang High-tech City, Torch High-tech Zone, with a total investment of 7 billion yuan and a total construction area of approximately 710,000 square metres.

According to the announcement issued by CATL on November 5, the planned land area for the Xiamen Times lithium-ion battery production base project (Phase I) is about 1,000 acres, and the total project investment will not exceed 8 billion yuan. The estimated construction period will be no more than 26 months. According to CATL, the investment and construction of the production base is in line with the company's strategic development plan and will further improve the production capacity deployment in order to meet the company's future business development and expansion needs.

3. Sinoma Technology noted that Inner Mongolia Zhongli plans to invest 2.303 billion yuan in the construction of a "wet-process separator production line for lithium batteries with an annual output of 720 million square metres" in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. Taibo Zoucheng intends to invest 980 million yuan to build a cold modification project of an alkali-free glass fibre drawing production line with an annual output of 120,000 mt in Zoucheng, Shandong Province. CSG plans to invest 150 million yuan in the establishment of Suqian Company in Suqian, Jiangsu Province, and establish a glass fiber filter paper production line with an annual output of 12,000 mt and a high-silica fibreglass production line with an annual output of 4,000 mt.

Sinoma Technology's announcement shows that the annual production of 720 million square metres of wet-process separator for lithium batteries includes 6 single-line wet-process base film production lines with an effective annual production capacity of 120 million square metres, with a total base film production capacity of 720 million square metres; 18 coating production lines with a total coating capacity of 748 million square metres. The project construction period is 20 months. Hunan Zhongli New Material affiliated to Zhongke Technology, intends to invest an additional 250 million yuan in its wholly-owned subsidiary, Inner Mongolia Zhongli. In the context of strong demand for lithium battery separators and rapid development of NEVs, the investment in the project is conducive to seizing market share and achieving greater growth.