CATL invests €3.25 billion in recycling plant in China
The Chinese battery manufacturer CATL has announced investments of up to 23.8 billion yuan (about 3.25 billion euros) in the construction of a large industrial park for the recycling of battery raw materials and their further processing for new batteries.
Several media outlets have reported the development with reference to official company information. CATL holds a 65 per cent stake its subsidiary Brump (Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology). Brump will build a complex in Foshan in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong with an annual processing capacity of 500,000 tonnes. The industrial park will recycle cathode materials from LFP and NMC cells as well as graphite from anodes and process them for new batteries.
Construction is estimated to take four years. At the end of 2021, CATL had already begun construction of a large industrial park in the Chinese city of Yichang for the production of battery materials for e-vehicles and the recycling of batteries. There, too, there was talk of a four-year construction period. The news website Yicai Global now reports, citing CATL, that operations there will not start until 2027.
The world’s largest battery manufacturer and its recycling subsidiary Brunp have long since been in the battery recycling business. China is currently in the process of ramping up battery reuse and recycling to cope with the glut of electric vehicle batteries ready for reuse and recycling from the first major boom in electric vehicle uptake in China, some years ago.
Germany, known for its environmental expertise as well as recycling machinery and technology, is already targeting more sustainable recycling methods. Today the Fraunhofer institute also announced a program looking at the direct reuse of some battery components thus avoiding toxic chemical separation methods.
Battery recycling is becoming “an important source of raw materials” in light of the growing NEV market, as precious metals and lithium resources are becoming of increasing geopolitical interest. Since China already dominates the battery production market as well as the processing of battery materials, without adequate recycling programs both nationally and internationally, these precious materials are potentially lost to other interests. Against this backdrop, the project now announced is intended to secure the supply of raw materials for lithium cells and improve the company’s overall positioning in the lithium battery industry chain.
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