(Yicai Global) Feb. 3 -- Senior Technology Material, China’s leading supplier of battery separators, plans to spend CNY10 billion (USD1.5 billion) to build a new plant with the capacity to turn out 8.3 billion square meters of lithium battery diaphragm products a year.

The new production base, to be built in two phases in Foshan, Guangdong province, will be able to make 3.2 billion sqm of wet diaphragms, 1.6 billion sqm of dry diaphragms, and 3.5 billion sqm of diaphragm coatings annually, the Shenzhen-based firm said late yesterday.

The plant will broaden Senior Tech’s lithium battery diaphragm categories, helping the company meet demand from mid to high-end customers and provide better support to battery makers in South China, it said.

Senior Tech sold only 1.2 billion sqm of lithium battery diaphragms in 2021. It has three working production bases in China, with another under construction. The company also plans to build a plant in Sweden and provide more than half of its products to Northvolt, a Stockholm-based lithium battery maker.

Net profit likely soared by 151 percent to 165 percent to between CNY710 million and CNY750 million (USD105.5 million to USD111.4 million) last year, Senior Tech said on Jan. 30.

In December, China’s securities regulator approved Senior Tech to list global depository receipts on the Six Swiss Exchange. In Shenzhen today, its shares [SHE: 300568] fell 1.6 percent to close at CNY23.80 (USD3.53), after opening up 1.6 percent.

Editor: Martin Kadiev