(Yicai Global) June 7 -- GEM will spend CNY1.8 billion (USD281 million) to expand production at one of its ternary precursor factories, using recycled battery materials from another of its plants to create a green industrial chain in the Yangtze River Delta economic hub, the Chinese raw material supplier for new energy vehicle batteries said.

The investment will boost production at the plant in Taixing, eastern Jiangsu province by 30,000 tons a year, making it GEM’s second biggest factory of the energy storage material, the Shenzhen-based firm said yesterday. The Taixing base will have an annual output value of CNY10 billion (USD1.56 billion) once the expansion is completed.

Construction should begin in June. The extended ternary precursor production line should be up and running by June 2022 and that of other production lines, including intermediate chemical products, by December 2023, it said.

Meanwhile, construction has already started on a battery recycling plant in neighboring Wuxi, capable of recycling 100,000 sets of batteries a year. The co-operation between the two factories will help GEM form a green recycling industrial chain in the Yangtze River Delta region, which Shanghai and parts of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, a center of NEV production and consumption in China, the company said.

Despite the good news GEM’s stock price [SHE:002340] closed down 8.39 percent to CNY9.83 (USD1.54) today, indicating that investors are likely taking advantage of the historical high reached on May 31 to sell at a profit.

Editor: Kim Taylor