Shanghai (ZXZC)- On Dec. 4, CATL broke ground on a NEV-related battery material industrial park in Yichang city, central China’s Hubei Province, the power battery giant announced via its WeChat account.

CATL breaking ground on Yichang battery material industrial park; photo credit: CATL

The construction came after CATL's subsidiaries signed agreements for this project with local authorities in mid-October. According to CATL’s earlier statement, Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. (Brunp Recycling) and Ningbo Brunp Contemporary Amperex Co., Ltd. (Ningbo Brunp CATL) would invest no more than 32 billion yuan ($5.023 billion) in the construction of a battery cathode material manufacturing base in Yichang that features a full-lifecycle product chain extending from phosphoric acid, raw material, precursor, ternary cathode material to battery material recycling.

The business data platform Tianyancha's information shows that CATL holds 52.88% stake in Brunp Recycling, while Ningbo Brunp CATL is a joint venture between Brunp Recycling and CATL.

Covering an area of about 5,500 mu (about 3.667 million square meters), the Yichang-based industrial park will feature a designed annual production capacity of 360,000-ton iron phosphate, 220,000-ton lithium iron phosphate, 180,000-ton NCM precursor, 40,000-ton lithium cobalt oxide, 40,000-ton recycled graphite, and the capability of recycling 300,000 ton/year of batteries.

Production at the first phase is expected to start in 2023, and the whole project is scheduled to be finished in 2025. Facilities at the industrial park will be able to provide battery cathode materials for 4 million NEVs once they are fully operational.

The project is designed to help CATL improve its strategic deployment in new energy vehicle battery industry, safeguard the raw material supply for its battery production, and build a sound battery recycling system, said CATL.