(Yicai Global) Aug 5 -- Eve Energy’s shares slipped after the Chinese lithium-ion battery giant said it intends to expand production capacity by building a 30 gigawatt hour project. It was not immediately clear whether the project represented new capacity or formed part of an existing expansion plan.

After falling as much as 5.4 percent earlier today, the stock [SHE:300014] finished down 2.6 percent at CNY116.38 (USD18). Eve Energy is still up more than 60 percent since mid-April, driven by the rapid growth of the electric vehicle market. The shares reached a record high of CNY131.88 on July 23.

The project, to be built at its Jingmen manufacturing base in central Hubei province, will have two assembly lines, the Guangdong province-based company said late yesterday. One will produce 15 GWh of lithium iron phosphate batteries, mainly used in logistics vehicles and by households. The other will produce 15 GWh of ternary lithium batteries for passenger cars.

Eve Energy gave no details about cost, construction time, or whether the capacity increase is part of the 82.5 GWh lithium battery project in Jingmen that the firm announced in June.

Its Jingmen plant already makes ternary lithium batteries for small electrical devices such as power tools. As demand for electric vehicles soars, Eve Energy's lithium battery business has begun to expand into the automotive field.

Earlier this week, the firm announced a joint venture with Yunnan Energy New Material, a major Chinese supplier of battery separators. Eve Energy will own 45 percent of the JV. The pair will build a CNY5.2 billion (USD805 million) lithium battery diaphragm plant in Jingmen, which will have an annual capacity of 1.6 billion square meters and prioritize Eve Energy’s needs.

Editor: Futura Costaglione