(Yicai Global) April 13 -- Chinese metals recycler GEM will join hands with South Korean cathode materials manufacturer Ecopro to process battery materials for new energy vehicles.

The pair have penned a memorandum of understanding to establish a joint venture in Ningde, where GEM's client Contemporary Amperex Technology is based, to make 24,000 metric tons of high-nickel ternary cathode material each year by 2022, the Chinese firm said in a statement. The capacity should be doubled by 2024.

GEM's unit will have 51 percent of the JV's equity and the Changwon-based partner will have the remainder, the statement added, without providing financial details. A formal contract is expected to be signed by June.

In early February, GEM agreed to sell at least 100,000 tons of battery materials to the supplier that counts Samsung as one of its clients over the next seven years.

Editor: Emmi Laine