(Yicai Global) July 28 -- Shares in Ronbay New Energy Technology surged as much as 13.7 percent today after the Chinese electric car battery materials producer said that it expects first-half net profit to surge as much as six times from the same period last year as sales of its main products double due to a surging demand for new energy vehicles.

Ronbay’s share price [SHA:688005] closed up 7.85 percent at CNY126.19 (USD19.40). Earlier in the day it had reached CNY133.10. Its stock has gained over five times since last September.

Net profit is likely to be between CNY300 million (USD46.1 million) and CNY340 million for the six months ended June 30 according to preliminary calculations, the Ningbo, southeastern Zhejiang province-based firm said yesterday.

Ronbay, which counts Contemporary Amperex Technology and BYD among its clients, is hiking production capacity of high nickel lithium battery cathode materials to 100,000 tons a year, 20,000 tons of which will be manufactured in South Korea, from the current 40,000 tons, a company executive said earlier this year.

Ronbay has also signed a supply contract with EV battery maker Farasis Energy for 36,500 tons of high-nickel ternary cathode materials over the next one and a half years, it said. The price will be determined based on market conditions at the time.

Ganzhou, eastern Jiangxi province-based Farasis will use new technologies to apply high-nickel cathode materials on a large scale in soft pack batteries, Ronbay said. This will help Ronbay obtain more mid-to-high-end customers in the international market.

Editor: Kim Taylor