On October 10, a joint venture of SAIC and Tsingshan Group held a ceremony to celebrate the commencement of the construction of a base for the manufacturing of NEV power battery systems. Located in the New Energy Industrial Park of the Liudong New Area, the base entails an investment of RMB 10 billion and is set to have a production capacity of 20GWh per year. Liudong New Area is part of Liuzhou, a prefecture-level city in China’s Guangxi Province.

The base represents the synergy of SAIC’s and Tsingshan’s respective advantages in R&D of NEV power batteries, hardware manufacturing, supply of upstream materials, and NEV market share. The main facilities of the base include factories for manufacturing battery components and assembling battery systems, multi-purpose warehouses, R&D center, workers’ dormitories, and complementing green infrastructure assets

Once up and running, the base is projected to generate RMB 20 billion in annual output value. Additionally, the base will contribute to the growth of a regional automotive industry chain that becoming more advanced, more intelligent, and more efficient. The local news media tout that the project will help further expand and strengthen the automotive industry as well as other emerging industries within the province.

SAIC and Tsingshan signed a joint investment agreement this March, leading to the development of the base in the Liudong New Area. From the agreement, two joint ventures were also established. One will focus on power battery cells, while the other will focus on power battery packs. The base in the Liudong New Area will manufacture products from most of the key sections of the battery supply chain, including cells, pack (systems), components (materials), electrolytes, etc. The production capacity of the base is currently set at 20GWh per year for cells and systems. However, the reporting from local news media indicates this figure could be revised in the future. The base will be built over two phases.

It is also worth noting that SGMW, which is a joint venture of SAIC, GM, and Liuzhou Wulin Motors, has initiated a NEV power battery project in Liuzhou. The project agreement was signed in May. Once completed, the project will have the production capacity to meet the demand for batteries equipped in various types of NEVs.

This article is a translation of a Chinese article posted by TrendForce. It contains information that is either sourced from other news outlets or accessible in the public domain. Some Chinese names are transcribed into English using Hanyu Pinyin.

(Source: Ecns Wire)