(Yicai Global) March 1 -- Shares of Camel Group, Asia's largest maker of low-voltage car batteries, jumped after the Chinese firm said it plans to spend CNY6.8 billion (USD981 million) building a production base for low-voltage lithium batteries and energy storage lithium batteries.

Camel's stock [SHA: 601311] closed 3.2 percent higher at CNY9.25 (USD1.34) in Shenzhen today, after jumping by as much as 7.7 percent at one point.

Camel plans to invest CNY3.3 billion in the project's first phase to build a plant with an annual production capacity of 4 million sets of low-voltage lithium batteries and 2 gigawatt-hours of energy storage batteries, the Hubei province-based firm announced yesterday.

How much will be invested in the second phase will be determined by future market demand and the firm’s capacity plan, Camel said, while the initial plan is to spend CNY3.5 billion on a new plant to make 8 million sets of low-voltage lithium batteries and 8 GWh of energy storage batteries.

Although the low-voltage lithium battery market is in the development early stage, Camel’s latest plans are conducive to giving full play to the synergistic and complementary role of its main business of auto lead-acid batteries, adapting to potential market changes, and meeting differentiated demand, according to Camel.

Led by top new energy vehicle makers, the low-voltage lithium battery market is expected to boom at the earliest in 2025, Camel Chairman Liu Changlai has said previously.

Revenue from Camel's lithium battery business accounts for a small part of its total, at only 0.2 percent in 2021, the firm said. The project brings some risks, as demand is yet to be fully realized in the early stage of the auto low-voltage lithium battery market in China and abroad, it added.

Camel's low-voltage lithium battery products include a 12-volt new energy vehicle auxiliary battery, a 24-V parking air conditioning battery, a 48-V start-stop battery and backup power, and an energy storage battery. The firm became the 12-V auxiliary lithium battery supplier for BMW early last year and the designated supplier of nine firms in eleven projects as of last June.

Camel's revenue rose 4.7 percent from a year earlier to CNY9.6 billion (USD1.4 billion) in the nine months ended Sept. 31, while net profit shrank 55.6 percent to CNY299 million (USD43.1 million).

Editor: Martin Kadiev