LG joins hands with Huayou New Energy to process lithium battery ternary precursors and cathode materials

According to foreign media reports, on April 11, local time, South Korea’s LG Chemical Company announced that it had signed an agreement with Huayou New Energy, a subsidiary of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt. New Energy Materials (Wuxi) Company, processing lithium battery ternary precursors and cathode materials. According to reports, LG Chem will invest 239.4 billion won (approximately RMB 1.41 billion) in joint ventures in China by 2020, of which Huajin will invest 83.3 billion won and Leyou New Energy will invest 156.1 billion won. Both parties will invest 1 billion yuan in Huajin Company, of which Huayou Energy will hold 51% of the shares. Huajin Company will be mainly engaged in the processing, sales and related supporting services of precursors. The annual production scale will be 40,000 tons from 2020, and it may expand to 100,000 tons later. Another joint venture company, Leyou New Energy, has a total investment of 3 billion yuan, and Huayou holds 49% of the shares. Different from Huajin Company, Leyou New Energy will be engaged in the related work of cathode materials, and the processing scale will also be 40,000 tons per year. LG Chem said that the output of the two joint ventures can supply enough batteries for 400,000 high-performance electric vehicles. The precursors and cathode materials processed by the joint venture are supplied to its battery plants in Nanjing and Poland. At present, LG Chem's Nanjing plant currently processes batteries for electronic products, electric vehicles and ESS, while its Polish plant only processes batteries for electric vehicles. Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt is one of the largest suppliers of cobalt materials in China, and its refined cobalt output reached 20,000 tons last year.