(Yicai Global) Dec. 23 -- An affiliate of Chinese advanced materials manufacturer Sinoma Science & Technology, which counts Contemporary Amperex Technology and BYD as some of its clients, will invest CNY2.3 billion (USD361 million) to build a facility in northern China in its second battery separator output increase plan announced in less than two months.

Chinaly New Materials will establish the plant in Hohhot to meet its downstream battery clients' fast-growing demand, Beijing-based Sinoma said in a statement yesterday. Chinaly is a subsidiary of Sinoma Lithium Battery Separator, controlled by the announcement maker.

The new facility will be built close to another upcoming plant. In early November, Sinoma said that Chinaly will invest CNY890 million (USD139.7 million) in a similar project in Hohhot in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The latest project is expected to be finished in 20 months. Its output should be 720 million square meters of lithium-ion battery base separators and 748 million sqm of coating separators. Together the two projects can add 1 billion sqm of base separators and 748 million sqm of coating separators to the firm's annual output.

Sinoma is a leading supplier of separators to South Korea's Samsung, SK, LG Chem, as well as Japan's Panasonic. Besides Hohhot, the Chinese company has such production bases in Hunan province's Changsha and Changde, as well as in Shandong province and Jiangsu province, according to its website and that of its unit.

Sinoma's stock price [SHE: 002080] closed 2.5 percent up at CNY35.47 (USD5.60).

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi