(Yicai Global) Aug. 30 -- Affiliates of Jiangsu Aucksun Co. [SHE:002245] and rare metal recycling company GEM Co. [SHE:002340] have reached a three-year strategic battery material supply agreement.

The two companies said yesterday that their units, GEM (Wuxi) Energy Materials Co. and Jiangsu Tenpower Lithium Co., have signed a cooperation agreement.

GEM (Wuxi) Energy Materials will provide Jiangsu Tenpower Lithium with 3,000, 4,000 and 5,000 tons of ternary cathode material (NCM) in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively, under the agreement. The latter will hand over the scrapped cells or battery packs to the former for recycling.

Jiangsu Tenpower is an NCM-powered lithium battery firm and has become a leading Chinese producer of lithium batteries for tools. It provides battery packs for electric car companies such as Zotye International Automobile Trading Co. and Dongfeng Motor Corp. in bulk.

GEM said the deal will significantly improve the profitability and core competitiveness of its NCM-powered lithium battery business and cement the position of its power battery materials in the industry chain for new energy vehicles.