BTR plans to produce anode materials in Morocco
The plant is to be built in the Mohammed VI Tangier Tech City, near the harbour city of Tangier, which is located on the Strait of Gibraltar in the north of the country. Construction is expected to take around two years, so the new factory should be operational in 2026 or 2027 – depending on when exactly the work starts. According to BTR, it will invest 2.6 billion yuan (330 million euros) in the plant.
However, it is no surprise that BTR is building the anode material factory in Tangier: the company is already building a plant for the production of cathode components there. The harbour city is thus becoming an important location for Chinese battery manufacturers: Hailang and Shinzoom want to build plants for copper foils and battery anodes there. CNGR Advanced Material is planning its cathode material factory in Jorf Lasfar, around 100 kilometres south of Casablanca.
BTR itself has not stated which customers will be served by the new anode plant in Morocco. However, as Yicai Global writes, the China Boan Group – BTR’s largest shareholder – has announced that the Moroccan project company will conclude a supply agreement with Ford for the plant. The pre-order is said to be worth 120 million US dollars (107 million euros). However, no further details are known.
BTR has already recently expanded its production capacity for anode materials outside China. At the beginning of August, a new factory was opened in Indonesia with a production capacity of 80,000 tonnes of anode material. With a further expansion phase, the capacity there is even to be increased to 160,000 tonnes per year.
BTR supplies major manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries such as Panasonic, Samsung SDI, LGES, SK On, CATL and BYD. The product portfolio includes natural and artificial graphite, silicon-based materials and cathode materials with a high nickel content.
0 Comments