Ganfeng Lithium inks JV deal in Turkiye

Ganfeng Lithium has announced a strategic partnership with Turkish battery maker Yigit Aku to establish a joint venture in Turkiye.

The venture will invest $500 million to develop a lithium battery project with an annual capacity of 5 gigawatt-hours, including production lines for both batteries and battery packs. It will also establish a research and development center focused on advancing technologies such as solid-state batteries, marine batteries and aerospace batteries.

As a leading domestic lithium salt producer, Ganfeng Lithium has expanded its lithium battery business significantly in recent years. It now offers a range of products including solid-state lithium batteries and energy storage systems.

The company's 2023 financial report said its lithium battery products generated 7.71 billion yuan ($1 billion) in revenue, accounting for 23.38 percent of total revenue. In 2023, production of lithium batteries and energy storage products reached 10.6 GWh.

Recent years have seen a notable increase in battery companies planning overseas factories. In July, following investment plans in Hungary and Morocco, Sunwoda announced plans to build a battery plant in Vietnam, while Eve Energy plans to invest 3 billion yuan in Malaysia for an energy storage and consumer battery manufacturing project.

Experts say that amid geopolitical instability and global trade tensions, many downstream customers now prefer battery suppliers with overseas manufacturing capabilities for on-time delivery. For lithium battery companies, expanding internationally is becoming increasingly essential.

Research institute EVTank said the internationalization of China's lithium battery sector is shifting from exports to direct overseas investment and local production.

As of June, total overseas investment by Chinese lithium battery companies had reached 564.8 billion yuan, with Europe as the main destination, followed by Southeast Asia. The United States accounted for only 10 percent of total such investment.

RealLi Research said Hungary and Turkiye have become key destinations for Chinese battery firms' international expansion.

Guolian Securities said that as top battery companies have continued to expand their overseas capacity over the past two years, upstream material and auxiliary companies are also progressing well. Their presence in Europe, the Americas, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia is expected to create a complete industrial chain with surrounding battery factories, enhancing competitiveness in cost control and supply security.

However, recent industrial policies in Europe and the US have pushed for local procurement of lithium batteries and core materials while imposing restrictions on Chinese capital, presenting challenges to China's energy storage sector's international growth, experts said.

Yu Qingjiao, secretary-general of the Zhongguancun New Battery Technology Innovation Alliance, said products exported to Europe will face stricter requirements on carbon footprints, battery passports and recycling, which will increase costs for companies. Over the long term, these changes will likely lead to significant industry restructuring.

"The export landscape for China's energy storage products is evolving, with a shift from merely battery and component exports to setting up overseas production sites. Furthermore, destinations of overseas productions are becoming more diverse with an increasing number of emerging markets being selected due to geopolitical and trade uncertainties in markets like Europe and the US," said Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University.