The first phase of CATL's Guizhou production base has been put into operation with an annual capacity of 30 GWh, capable of producing a cell in 1 second and a pack in 2.5 minutes.

(Image credit: CATL)

Chinese power battery giant CATL has put into operation a new battery production base capable of producing an average of one cell every one second with the help of highly automated production lines.

CATL's production base for power and energy storage batteries in Guian New District in southwest China's Guizhou province went into operation on October 27, the battery giant said in a press release yesterday evening.

The production base, with a total land area of about 1,435 mu (0.95 square kilometers), is being built in two phases with a planned combined annual capacity of 60 GWh, the first of which has already been officially put into operation.

The first phase of the site, with a total land area of about 885 mu and a total investment of about RMB 7 billion ($960 million), is designed to have an annual production capacity of 30 GWh of power and energy storage batteries.

The first phase of the project uses an advanced production line with an automation rate of 95 percent, featuring a high production pace and high flexibility, CATL said.

From material feeding to finished product output, the base can realize the speed of producing one cell in one second and one battery pack in 2.5 minutes, the company said.

CATL is the world's largest power battery maker, with a global share of 36.9 percent in the January-August period, the only one above 30 percent, according to South Korean market researcher SNE Research.

However, CATL saw its third-quarter net profit decline from the second quarter as competition grew fiercer and peers put more new capacity into operation.

CATL reported a net profit of RMB 10.43 billion in the third quarter, up 10.7 percent year-on-year but down 4.3 percent from the second quarter, according to its financial report released earlier this month.

The company's gross margin was 22.42 percent in the third quarter, up 0.46 percentage points from the second quarter while significantly lower than its gross margin of nearly 30 percent for most of 2020 through 2021.

CATL's share in China has slipped this year, coming in at 39.41 percent in September, the first time it has fallen below 40 percent since April last year, data from the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance (CABIA) showed.

($1 = RMB 7.3179)

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