China's GEM signs five-year battery material supply deal with ECOPRO

ECOPRO

24/12/2018 08:19

BEIJING, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Chinese battery firm GEM Co Ltd
 002340.SZ  will supply 170,000 tonnes of raw materials to South
Korean battery maker ECOPRO Co Ltd  086520.KQ  from 2019 to
2023, its latest effort to win a bigger share of the booming
power cell market.
    GEM signed a memorandum of understanding with ECOPRO to sell
16,000 tonnes of lithium nickel-cobalt-aluminium oxide (NCA)
cathode materials in 2019, the company said in a filing to the
Shenzhen stock exchange on Monday.
    The volume will increase to 24,000 tonnes in 2020 and 40,000
tonnes in 2021, GEM said. Prices for the deal were not
disclosed. 
    It will separately negotiate with the ECOPRO about further
purchase plans for 2022 to 2023.  
    GEM currently has battery raw materials production capacity
of 60,000 tonnes per annum.
    "We will adjust production capacity based on demands in 2019
to ensure the orders from customers," said GEM on Monday
separately at a platform run by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
    GEM will also offer nickel hydroxide raw ingredient and
share technology of sulphate production from cobalt hydroxide
and nickel hydroxide with ECOPRO, according to the stock filing.
    The two companies will also work together to build plants
for cobalt power and basic nickel carbonate production in South
Korea.
    Share prices of GEM rose 1.3 percent to 3.99 yuan ($0.58) on
Monday, while ECOPRO climbed 0.6 percent to 34,150 won ($30.37).
    China's top miner China Minmetals Corp also said on Monday
that it has launched the first phase of a new energy battery
materials project with production capacity of
nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) hydroxides at 40,000 tonnes.
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($1 = 6.8979 Chinese yuan renminbi)
($1 = 1,124.3300 won)

 (Reporting by Muyu Xu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Christian
Schmollinger)
 ((muyu.xu@thomsonreuters.com; +86 010 66271298;))