LG Chem plans to build a second power battery plant in China. Recently, Nanjing Jiangning Binjiang Development Zone and LG Chem held a signing ceremony. LG Chemical plans to start construction of a power battery project in Binjiang Development Zone in October this year. The total investment of this project is about USD 2 billion. It will be completed and put into operation in October 2019, and the annual production capacity will reach 32GWh in 2023.
Battery maker LG Chem Korea has maintained an average annual battery sales growth of more than 30% worldwide, especially automotive power batteries and ESS energy storage batteries that are ranked first in the world. The battery project planned to start in Nanjing this October will mainly produce power batteries, energy storage batteries and small batteries. The factory plans to build 23 electrode and cell production lines, including 16 power batteries, 3 energy storage batteries, and 4 small batteries.
The project will begin mass production in October 2019 and reach full production by 2023. After the project is put into production, the annual production capacity can reach 32GWh and the annual output value will reach 35 billion yuan. Its power battery products are mainly supplied to Hyundai Motor, Volvo, GM, Chrysler, Renault and other well-known auto manufacturers. LG will also continue to expand investment scale and production capacity as new orders from domestic and international vehicle brands increase. The ultimate goal is to meet the needs of 500,000 electric vehicles, such as the 60kW-h battery packs of Chevrolet Bolt and Tesla Model S.
It is understood that as early as the end of 2015, LG Chem had completed the construction of a power battery factory in Nanjing Qixia District. According to the capacity planning at that time, LG Chemical plans to supply 50,000 electric vehicles worldwide in 2016, and by 2020, it will expand its capacity to 200,000 electric vehicles. LG Chem has stated that the Nanjing plant is the world's third largest power battery plant after the South Korea ’s Okura plant and the US Holland plant, and it will also be LG Chem ’s most important power battery production base in the world.
However, LG Chem has not been able to enter China's power battery catalog, and its production license is only applicable to the production of batteries for non-Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers. In April 2017, LG Chem and Geely Group reached an agreement. Geely Group acquired the right to use the intellectual property rights of all production equipment and manufacturing technology at LG's Nanjing Qixia District plant. Subsequently, Geely Group relocated the production equipment of the plant to its Hengyuan Battery Base in Jinhua, Zhejiang.
In April 2018, the China Automobile Industry Association announced the establishment of a white list for the power battery industry to regulate industry development, and made it clear that it was not linked to subsidies. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology cancelled the power battery catalog. In May of this year, among the first batch of whitelists released in the power battery industry, Samsung Huanxin (Xi'an) Power Battery Co., Ltd., Nanjing Lejin Chemical New Energy Battery Co., Ltd., Beijing Electric Control Aisika Technology Co., Ltd., etc. All foreign-funded enterprises have entered the list.
The cancellation of the battery catalog made LG Chem choose to build a factory in China again. Before announcing the re-establishment of the plant in Nanjing, LG Chem also selected a joint venture with Huayou Cobalt to invest in a ternary precursor new material project, and then cooperated with the China Automobile Industry Association and the Guolian Automobile Power Battery Research Institute to develop a new generation Research on power battery technology.