(Yicai Global) May 31 -- Jiangsu Guotai International Group is building another battery electrolyte plant, its fourth capacity expansion plan in less than six months, to meet surging demand from electric car battery manufacturers.

Guotai International will invest CNY1.5 billion (USD227 million) to construct a factory that makes electrolytes for lithium batteries with an annual output of 300,000 tons, the Zhangjiagang, southeastern Jiangsu province-based company said yesterday. The new plant will be located in Zigong, southwestern Sichuan province and is expected to be ready in two years’ time.

This is on top of three other projects with a combined annual output of 960,000 tons of electrolytes announced since December last year. The firm is building a CNY1.5 billion plant in Quzhou, southeastern Zhejiang province and has two other projects underway, costing CNY2.6 billion, one of which is in Prusice, Poland.

Guotai International, which is one of China’s three largest suppliers of lithium battery electrolytes, is determined to make the most of soaring demand for the raw materials needed to make EV batteries as sales of new energy vehicles boom. As of May last year, it only had a yearly capacity of 70,000 tons of electrolytes, a senior executive said.

Guotai International’s share price [SHE:002091] closed up 1.51 percent at CNY10.78 (USD1.62) today.

Editor: Kim Taylor