On June 30, 2021, the opening ceremony of GEM (Jingmen) New Energy Materials Circular Economy Low Carbon Industrial Park, a project with an annual output of 100,000 tons of high-purity nickel-cobalt crystal took place in Jingmen Chemical Circular Industrial Park, Hubei Province. This was another important strategic step of GEM in the upstream of new energy industry - raw materials for battery-grade high-purity nickel-cobalt salt crystal, after the successful opening of GEM (Wuxi) New Energy Circular Economy Low Carbon Industry Demonstration Park on June 6. More than 200 people from relevant units attended the ceremony. Prof. Xu Kaihua, Board Chairman of GEM, Ms. Wang Min, Director of GEM, and Zhou Bo, Chairman of GEM’s Board of Supervisors were present at the event.

Samsung SDI, ECOPRO, POSCO of South Korea, Glencore, Trafigura of Switzerland, Mitsui of Japan, ATL，Xiamen Tungsten, Hunan Brunp, China Tungsten and High-tech Materials, Ronbay Technology, CNGR, Shanshan, Zhangyuan Tungsten, OKE, Lygend, C&D Logistics of China and other domestic and foreign well-known enterprises sent letters of congratulation. More than a dozen media, including Hubei Daily, covered the event.

The project with an annual output of 100,000 tons of high-purity nickel-cobalt crystal in GEM (Jingmen) New Energy Materials Circular Economy Low Carbon Industrial Park and GEM Wuxi Power Battery Recycling Base will form an industrial chain for recycling and comprehensive utilization of power battery, and open up a nickel-cobalt resource circular industrial chain of "power battery recycling - cascaded utilization of power battery – re-manufacturing of battery-grade nickel-cobalt raw materials", forming a globally competitive industrial system for recycling of power battery and comprehensive utilization of resources.

The global tide of new energy vehicles combined with the trend of high nickelization will drive the huge growth of the battery-grade high-purity nickel-cobalt salt crystal, especially the huge growth of the demand for the battery-grade nickel-sulfate crystal which will become a scarce commodity. GEM boasts advanced technologies for manufacturing the battery-grade nickel-cobalt salt crystal, especially the battery-grade nickel-sulfate crystal. GEM nickel-sulfate crystal is regarded as a high-quality brand in ternary materials industry, with a number of high-quality customers in the industry, such as Ronbay Technology, CNGR, Xiamen Tungsten, Hunan Brunp, etc. This time, GEM has expanded its capacity to 100,000 tons of battery-grade high-purity nickel-cobalt salt crystal, which has met the growth needs of new energy materials for the high-purity nickel-cobalt salt crystal.

According to the analysis of Essence Securities, the global supply and demand of nickel sulfate and nickel is likely to enter a period of shortage in 2021, and the gap will gradually expand in the next five years. Due to the acceleration of high nickelization process, the demand for nickel in power battery is expected to be higher than that of new energy vehicles systematically. In the next five years, the demand for nickel sulfate in power lithium battery will grow at a compound average annual rate of 40%. Although stainless steel remains the largest consumption area of nickel, the power battery industry will be the fastest growth area of the demand for nickel in the future.

As one of the leading enterprises in the world in the field of new energy battery materials, GEM has built a production capacity of 130,000 tons of ternary precursors per year, and will reach a production capacity of 180,000 to 200,000 tons by the end of 2021. Core products, such as battery materials and battery raw materials, have become high-quality products in the global industry, and are mainly supplied to high-quality customers such as SAMSUNG SDI, ECOPRO, CATL, LGC, ATL, Ronbay Technology, Xiamen Tungsten and CNGR, becoming high-quality key raw materials of the new energy battery in the world and laying a solid foundation for the company to build a globally competitive core manufacturing base of new energy battery materials.

In its "14th Five-Year Plan", GEM clearly states that the production and sales scale of ternary precursors for vehicles will exceed 400,000 tons per year in 2025. Based on this goal, GEM is forming a pattern of "Jingmen + Taixing + Fu’an" for the ternary precursor manufacturing bases of new energy materials to consolidate its global core position in new energy materials such as ternary precursors and cobaltosic oxide. With the rapid expansion of GEM’s production capacity of precursors, the sufficient supply of the battery-grade high-purity nickel-cobalt salt crystal will effectively guarantee the full release of its production capacity.

GEM has invested in the project to produce 100,000 tons/year of battery-grade high-purity nickel-cobalt salt crystal, with an annual production capacity of 33,000 tons of battery-grade high-purity nickel sulfate crystal, 33,000 tons of battery-grade high-purity cobalt sulfate crystal and 33,000 tons of cobalt chloride crystal. The project will build two nickel sulfate crystal production lines, two cobalt sulfate crystal production lines and two cobalt chloride crystal production lines, as well as supporting storage and transportation projects, public auxiliary projects and environmental protection projects. After the project is put into production, the annual sales revenue will reach 4.98 billion yuan and the total profit 248 million yuan.

Based on the technical advantages of waste battery and nickel-cobalt waste recycling system and recycling technology that the company has developed in the field of battery raw materials and materials in the past 20 years, GEM’s battery-grade high-purity nickel-cobalt salt crystal project has made full use of the perfect basic supporting facilities such as energy and environmental protection that have been formed in GEM Jingmen Park, effectively reduced the investment cost and greatly improved the utilization efficiency of capital, which is of great significance for continuously improving the outstanding core advantages of the company in the nickel-cobalt material manufacturing mode of "chemical raw material system + precursor manufacturing system". GEM has actively implemented the multiple raw material strategic channels of "urban mines + self-built nickel resource bases + strategic cooperation between international giants" and built an internationally competitive cobalt-nickel raw material system, fully guaranteeing the safety of the raw material supply system.

The successful implementation of the battery-grade high-purity nickel-cobalt salt crystal project will help ensure the full supply of battery-grade raw materials in GEM’s ternary precursor manufacturing bases of new energy materials, meet the huge demand for the battery-grade nickel-cobalt salt crystal in the fast-growing global new energy industry, continuously consolidate the leading position of GEM’s power battery materials and battery raw materials in the global supply chain, further enhance the core competitiveness and sustainable profitability of GEM’s main business and create good returns for investors.

Photo 1 The opening ceremony of GEM (Jingmen) New Energy Materials Circular Economy Low Carbon Industrial Park, a project with an annual output of 100,000 tons of high-purity nickel cobalt crystal

Photo 2 The opening ceremony of GEM (Jingmen) New Energy Materials Circular Economy Low Carbon Industrial Park, a project with an annual output of 100,000 tons of high-purity nickel cobalt crystal

Photo 3 Wang Qiyang, Secretary of Jingmen Municipal Party Committee, and Prof. Xu Kaihua, Chairman of GEM, jointly announcing the commencement of construction

Photo 4 Prof. Xu Kaihua, Chairman of GEM, delivering a speech

Photo 5 Prof. Xu Kaihua, Chairman of GEM, introducing the progress of the project