(Yicai Global) Jan. 19 -- Battery raw materials firm Ganfeng Lithium Group has announced it will build two lithium battery plants for CNY15 billion (USD2.2 billion) in total, raising its capacity by 34 gigawatt hours a year.

Ganfeng Lithium will spend CNY10 billion on a new factory with an annual power battery capacity of 24 GWh in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, the Xinyu-based firm said late today. It will set up a joint venture for the project with two local companies, Chongqing Three Gorges Water Conservancy and Electric Power and East Shineray Group, the firm added.

Ganfeng Lithium will also invest CNY5 billion in a new lithium battery plant with an annual capacity of 10 GWh and an energy storage headquarters in Dongguan in China’s southern Guangdong province.

The firm had already started ramping up capacity last year amid surging demand for lithium batteries. In August it announced plans to spend CNY21.3 billion on boosting capacity, followed in September by an investment of CNY30 billion to build a lithium battery industry chain in the city of Yichun, Jiangxi province. 

The move came on the back of robust earnings results in 2022, including a nearly sixfold jump in net profit to CNY14.8 billion in the first three quarters from a year earlier, and a fourfold gain in revenue to CNY27.6 billion.

Ganfeng Lithium’s rivals have also been hiking capacity. Huizhou-based Eve Energy announced yesterday that it would invest CNY15.5 billion in building two power battery plants in the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan in southwestern China, with the capacity of the two plants set to total 43 GWh a year.

Editor: Tom Litting