(Yicai Global) Jan. 6 -- Shares of Chinese solid waste disposal company Weiming Environment Protection surged after the firm said it will enter the battery material industry for the first time to tap into the large demand.

Weiming's equity price [SHA: 603568] soared as much as 7.8 percent to CNY38.11 (USD6) intraday but declined 3.7 percent in the afternoon. The shares have jumped almost 90 percent over the past year.

The waste management firm will team with Hong Kong-registered Merit International Capital to form a joint venture to build a USD390 million nickel smelting facility in Weda Bay Industrial Park on Indonesia's Halmahera island, the Zhejiang province-based company said in a statement yesterday. Weiming will have 70 percent of the JV's equity and the partner will have the remainder.

The project marks the listed company's first move into the new energy industry, it said.

The facility will produce nickel matte and the amount of nickel in the products will tally 40,000 tons per year, the firm added. The intermediate product can further be processed into high-purity nickel sulfate to be used as a raw material for battery cathodes.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi