(Yicai Global) May 18 -- CNGR Advanced Material's subsidiary will invest CNY1.3 billion (USD202 million) to increase production of the energy storage material ternary precursor by 35,000 tons a year and build a battery recycling facility, the raw material supplier for new energy vehicle batteries said yesterday.

Hunan Zoomwe New Energy Science and Technology’s investment will jack up output to 135,000 tons of the material a year from the current 100,000 tons, it said. The money will also be spent on building a research and development base for ternary lithium battery materials and a supporting plant to recycle old batteries as well as nickel and cobalt metal resources, according to the deal signed by CNGR and local authorities.

The project, which will be based in the Ningxiang National Economic and Technological Development Zone in central Hunan province, will cover 16.3 hectares and the main section should be completed in the next year and a half, it added. An exact investment breakdown was not given.

CNGR sold 72,600 tons of ternary precursor products last year, a five-fold leap from 2017, according to company data. Lithium-ion batteries that use ternary precursors as cathode materials tend to last longer due to their high energy storage density. Ternary precursors are made from nickel, cobalt and manganese compounds.

CNGR also plans to invest CNY23 billion (USD3.6 billion) in a ternary precursor plant in the southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region with an annual output of 150,000 tons, together with a recycling facility that can handle 70,000 tons of nickel and cobalt metal resources per year, the Tongren, southwestern Guizhou province-based firm said in January.

Worldwide ternary precursor shipments will rise to 1.48 million tons by 2025, an almost four-and-a-half-fold leap from output in 2019, according to estimates by the Gao Gong Industry Institute. There is thus huge room for growth.

CNGR's share price [SHE:300919] closed up 0.28 percent today at CNY108.48 (USD16.89) apiece.

Editor: Kim Taylor