In China, several companies from various sectors have recently announced plans to enter the battery recycling market, often through partnerships with battery recyclers or by direct investment. 

Xinhua Chemicals enters the battery recycling market through partnership with Geely

Xinhua Chemicals announced a joint venture with Jiangsu Yaoning New Energy, Shanghai to build a battery recycling plant with an annual capacity of 10,000 tonnes by July 2024. The plant aims to ramp up to an annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes by the end of 2026. In 2022, Jiangsu Yaoning New Energy’s parent company Geely announced a 100,000-tonne battery recycling and reuse project in Jiangxi, China. On 24th July 2023, Geely established a new subsidiary Jixin Resource Recycling Technology with an investment of RMB20 million (USD2.8 million). The company’s business scope includes battery recycling, battery reuse, recycling R&D and etc. 

MGL Materials

In early July 2023, Chinese battery materials manufacturer MGL Materials announced the operation of its first battery recycling project in Tianjin, China with an annual capacity of 6,000 tonnes of production scrap. It is expected to have an output of over 4,400 tonnes of black mass and 450 tonnes of aluminium metal and 900 tonnes of copper metal. The plant will be run by Shengtong New Energy Tech, a joint venture between MGL Materials and Jilin Tieyang Shengri Recycling Technology. 

Dinghan Technology

Dinghan Technology, an electrical equipment manufacturer in the rail transit industry, announced its entry into battery recycling by acquiring 5% stake in Chinese battery recycling company, Jiangxi Huanli New Energy Tech. Jiangxi Huanli also runs its battery reuse business through its subsidiary Huanli Recycling.  

Guangdong Shidai Zhongyi Technology

Guangdong Shidai Zhongyi Technology, an ESS service provider, announced a one billion RMB (USD139 million) project in Guangdong, China. The project includes building production lines for battery recycling pre-treatment processing and battery reuse.  

What does the future look like?

Battery recycling capacity in China is expected to stay on an upward trajectory in the coming years given new entrants and capacity expansions of existing players and the market is likely to get more competitive. However, there also remain challenges as the Chinese government tries to set more stringent battery recycling requirements and concerns rise over the overwhelming battery recycling capacity. 

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