China's GEM, South Korea's EcoPro to set up JV to produce high-Ni battery materials

SHANGHAI, Apr 14 (SMM) – Chinese power battery recycling giant GEM will team up with South Korean cathode materials manufacturer EcoPro to produce high-nickel ternary precursor products for electric vehicle batteries.

GEM said on Monday April 13 that its subsidiary Fuan Qingmei Energy Materials Co., Ltd. has penned a memorandum of understanding with EcoPro to establish a joint venture (JV) in Ningde, in South China’s Fujian province.

The JV will primarily engage in the production of nickel-rich nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) and nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide (NCM) precursor products. Its capacity is expected to reach 24,000 mt per year by 2022 and 48,000 mt per year by 2024.

Fuan Qingmei will have 51% of the JV's equity and the Changwon-based partner will have the remainder, according to the announcement by GEM.

In February, GEM agreed to sell at least 100,000 mt of nickel-rich NCM 8 and 9 series precursor materials to EcoPro’s subsidiary EcoPro BM over the next seven years.

GEM delivered 33,000 mt of ternary precursor materials in the first half of 2019, and 77% of which were for CATL, BYD, Panasonic, LG and Samsung, the top five power battery suppliers in the world. The Shenzhen-based company’s full-year ternary precursor materials deliveries are estimated to exceed 70,000 mt in 2019 and reach 100,000 mt in 2020.