CATL to focus on international expansion
As the portal Cn EV Post reports, citing the local media agency LatePost, this increased overseas focus is expressed, among other things, in the form of two additional factories that CATL is planning abroad. These are said to be the already leaked joint plant with Stellantis in Spain and a factory for cathode materials in Morocco. The latter will be used to supply CATL’s battery plants in Europe with precursor materials.
According to the report, CATL’s phase of rapid growth in China is over. The reason given for this is the endeavours of Chinese manufacturers to diversify their battery supply partnerships, which also provides smaller suppliers such as CALB or Sunwoda with lucrative orders – and intensifies competition for CATL. In principle, CATL’s domestic development will be shaped by two factors: the e-car sales rate (in 2023, the e-share in China averaged 31.6 per cent) and BYD sales, as the Chinese market leader BYD is known to manufacture its own batteries.
What is new is that CATL boss Robin Zeng will now probably be personally responsible for implementing the expansion plans. In an internal memo to staff, Zeng is said to have commented as follows: “Competition in the Chinese domestic market is getting tougher, and there is still plenty of room for CATL to grow overseas. (…) The international situation will change rapidly in 2024, but the trend of new energy is an international consensus, and the temporary uncertainty will bring opportunities to those who are capable of seizing these opportunities.”
Zeng will be supported by a quartet of co-presidents who will be responsible for various overseas areas and report directly to the CEO. Specifically, Tan Libin, Huang Siying, Feng Chunyan and Zeng Rong will be responsible for overseas sales, infrastructure, base operations and procurement. Six CATL plants have already been officially announced or are in operation internationally: in Erfurt (Germany), in Hungary, Indonesia, Thailand and in the USA in partnership with Ford (in Michigan) and with Tesla (in Nevada).
In the case of the latter two factories, it should be noted that CATL is practically excluded from the market due to the strict subsidisation policy in the USA. The company is therefore trying to participate indirectly in the US battery boom by licensing its technology and supplying production expertise (such as the machines at Tesla). The aforementioned battery factory is also planned with Ford under a licence deal.
In principle, CATL wants to establish the granting of technology licences as a pillar of its export strategy alongside the construction of plants. CATL recently reported that it is in talks with around 10 to 20 other car manufacturers in the USA and Europe about a similar agreement.
According to figures from the South Korean market research institute SNE Research, CATL was the global market leader in the industry last year with 259.7 GWh of installed batteries, an increase of 41 per cent compared to 184.4 GWh in 2022. This gave CATL a global market share of 36.8 per cent in 2023, compared to 36.2 per cent in 2022.
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