News Roundup for New Energy Market

SHANGHAI, Nov 22 (SMM)  – A weekly update on the trending stories from the New Energy sector.

1. China’s leading tantalum and niobium metallurgical product manufacturer Ximei Resources Holding Limited (9936.HK, hereinafter referred to as “Ximei Resources”) announced on November 18 that it will establish a joint venture, which will build a circular economy industrial park with a capacity of 50,000 mt/year battery-grade lithium salt. Ximei Resources is the world's leading manufacturer of wet-process tantalum and niobium products. Its entry into the lithium battery’s core raw material industry will help the company open up new business and become an important driving force for its future business growth and competitiveness enhancement.

Ximei Resources will invest approximately 37.3 million yuan for roughly 18.66% of stake in the joint venture. The industrial park will mainly produce lithium salt, an important material for lithium batteries. The project will be built in two phases, with 23,000 mt/year of battery-grade lithium salt capacity in the first phase and 27,000 mt/year capacity in the second phase. However, the current resources are still unknown. With the release of mine and salt lake resources after 2023, the production capacity will be fully utilised.

2. Due to the shortage of chip supply, Volkswagen's plants in Zwickau and Dresden, Germany, suspended production of electric vehicles last week.

Zwickau plant is mainly responsible for the production of ID. Models, whose sales in China were close to 12,376 units in October and exceeded those of its Chinese competitors, including NIO, Xiaopeng and LiAuto. Therefore, the suspension of the plant will tighten supply of such models. Due to the shortage of chips, Volkswagen lowered its annual sales forecast. The production cut will reduce the output of Volkswagen's electric vehicles by 5,000 units. The shortages of car chips amid the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to negatively impact the production and sales of major global car makers.

3. Zhuhai CosMX Battery Co. announced on November 18 that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Zhejiang CosMX, has signed the "Project Investment Agreement" with the Haiyan People’s Government and the Zhejiang Baibu Economic Development Zone Management Committee to build a lithium-ion motive power battery project in the region.

The total investment of the project will be 4 billion yuan, including 3.5 billion yuan in fixed asset investment. Construction of the production lines is scheduled to commence in 2022. Once the production lines are completed, it will have an annual capacity of 10Gwh lithium-ion batteries. Zhuhai CosMX Battery is a leading producer of consumer lithium-ion batteries. Its notebook battery shipments ranked second in the world in 2020. Its downstream customers include Huawei, HP, Xiaomi, Dell and other well-known enterprises in China and abroad.