On Feb. 21, China Lithium Battery Technology Co., Ltd. “CALB”) signed a cooperation agreement with several banks “the bank group” who agreed to issue 5 billion yuan $790.551 million) worth of loans to the power battery maker, CALB announced via its WeChat account.

CALB signing agreement with banks; photo credit: media outlet backed by Jintan district government

The bank group is led by China Merchants Bank's Guangzhou branch and includes China Minsheng Bank's Changzhou branch, China Construction Bank's Jintan branch, Agricultural Bank of China's Jintan branch, as well as Industrial Bank's Changzhou branch.

The loan will support CALB in building the third phase of its Jiangsu power battery manufacturing base.

The company said, under the newly-formed cooperation, CALB will be granted preferential policies of financing scale and interest rate from the bank group, meaning that the company's comprehensive strength and development potential have been highly recognized by financial institutions.

In January 2022, CALB recorded a monthly power battery installed capacity of 1.2GWh, accounting for 7.4% of China’s total volume and ranking third among power battery makers in the country, according to the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance CAPBIIA).

CALB is working on adding its battery production capacity to catch up with the fast-growing new energy vehicle market demands in China. In late January this year, the company signed two investment agreements for the plans to build power battery and energy storage system manufacturing bases in Guangzhou and Jiangmen cities, which will add 100GWh per year to the battery maker's total production capacity.

Additionally, CALB broke ground in early February for the third phase of its power battery manufacturing base in Xiamen city, Fujian province, which is designed to feature an annual lithium battery cell manufacturing capacity of 40GWh.