(Yicai Global) Jan. 6 -- Shares in Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean Technology surged as much as 7 percent today after the Chinese electric car battery materials provider said it expects net profit to soar between seven-fold and seven-and-half-times last year from the year before due to strong demand from new energy vehicle battery makers.TA&A’s share price [SHE:300390] closed up 4.1 percent at CNY60.56 (USD8.80) after hitting CNY62.24 earlier in the day. The stock has lost almost 30 percent of its value in the past year.

Net profit for 2022 will range between CNY6.4 billion (USD932.9 million) and CNY6.8 billion, the Suzhou, Jiangsu province-based company said today.

A new factory for lithium hydroxide, a key raw material used to make lithium batteries, with an annual capacity of 25,000 tons came online last year, driving up output and sales, it said.

Battery-grade lithium hydroxide made large contributions to profits as supportive policies in the NEV sector boosted shipments and sales, said TA&A, which used to mostly make electrostatic discharge control materials. The company started to branch into the new energy field in recent years and over 90 percent  of its revenue now comes from lithium battery materials.

In the first three quarters last year, net profit surged more than nine-fold year on year to CNY5.2 billion (USD757.6 million), while revenue jumped nearly five-and-a-half fold to CNY12.6 billion (USD1.8 billion), according to its latest financial report.

Editor: Kim Taylor