BASF forms China battery materials JV with Shanshan

LONDON (ICIS)–BASF has partnered with China-based lithium-ion battery materials supplier Hunan Shanshan Energy to form a joint venture targeting the space, the Germany-based chemicals major said on Thursday.

The venture will allow BASF to access the cathode active materials (CAM) and precursors markets in the country, a sector the company has been actively targeting in Europe, with work on production facilities underway in Germany and Finland.

The European projects, Shanshan joint venture and a partnership in the US and Japan with producer TODA, will establish BASF as the first company with significant production capacities for CAM in every major producing region of the world when construction work on several of the projects is completed next year.

The venture, which is still subject to approvals, will be 51%-held by BASF, and will utilise BASF’s global footprint to drive cheaper raw materials supply costs, using Shanshan’s production facilities in Hunan and Ningxia.

By 2022 the company is expected to have an annual production capacity of 90,000 tonnes/year of CAM and CAM precursors.

“Through the partnership with BASF, Shanshan will further strengthen the competitiveness in the Chinese market and accelerate the integration into the global market,” said Shanshan chairman Yonggang Zheng.

BASF’s large investment projects have been largely centred outside of its European home base, with a $10bn third complex underway in Guangdong, China.

Despite that focus, and moves last year to cut costs across the business in the wake of the pandemic, work on the Schwarzheide and Harjavalta battery plants continued.

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