Shanghai (ZXZC)- Chinese power battery giant CATL and State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC), one of China's biggest state-owned power generators, signed an agreement several days ago to step up the strategic cooperation on branding, marketing channels, technologies and products.

CATL, SPIC signing agreement; photo credit: CATL

Partnership between two parties can date back to about eight months ago. On June 29, 2020, the HK-listed CTVISION entered into a cooperation agreement with CATL pursuant to which all three parties, namely CATL, SPIC and CTVISION, would make joint effort to promote the development and construction of SPIC's energy storage project.

While rapidly expanding battery capacity, CATL is also moving faster on deploying its energy storage business. According to public reports, the Ningde-based battery giant has operated joint ventures with KSTAR, EAST and NEBULA for energy storage business, and offers these partners its lithium iron phosphate battery solution.

In the markets outside China, the U.S.-headquartered Powin Energy contracted in March 2019 to purchase 1.85GWh of battery cells with CATL. The Chinese battery titan would supply its lithium-ion cells, specifically lithium-iron-phosphate, for integration into Powin's battery energy storage systems.

Moreover, CATL agreed in July 2019 to provide batteries under a partnership with Japanese solar power company NextEnergy & Resources, which would be responsible for assembling and installing the energy storage systems that they planned to sell to Japanese utilities and other energy suppliers.

CATL is increasing the investment in energy storage field. According to an announcement CATL issued last month, it would pump not more than 12 billion yuan ($1.847 billion) in a production base for power and energy-storage batteries in Zhaoqing, Guangdong province.