500 Milliarden Yuan "Gründliche Untersuchung" darüber, wie Sichuan den führenden Status von Jiangsu in der Batteriebranche herausfordert

For readers and media in the East, the concept of the "Great Western Migration" is rather unknown. In fact, it is a policy measure announced on September 25, 2024, by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council of China to promote the orderly relocation of industries from the East to the central and western regions, and from central institutions to border areas.

An important part of the "Great Western Migration" is the settlement of the battery industry in the Southwest. The background for this is the accelerated global energy transition, where the new energy battery industry has become one of the core sectors. As an important location for new energy battery raw materials, Sichuan has 57% of the total lithium ore reserves in China, giving it a unique resource advantage.

In addition, Sichuan is rich in hydropower resources and has sufficient power generation capacity. Its favorable geographical location and proximity to the automobile manufacturing metropolis of Chongqing have contributed to Sichuan and the surrounding regions gradually becoming important gathering points for the new energy battery industry.

Last year, Zhai Gang, the director of the Sichuan Department of Economy and Information Technology, predicted that the gross income of the entire battery production chain in the province would reach 500 billion yuan by 2025.

To understand the strategy of this region in the new energy industry, the Auto Community conducted a field study. They traveled from Chengdu Longquanyi to Qionglai and then to Meishan, visiting several battery companies and new energy industrial parks to investigate the unique and mutually supportive development pattern in more detail.

Two Relocations of CALB

When we arrived at the CALB Phase 1 project in Chengdu Longquanyi, it was just lunch break. Workers streamed out of the factory east of the road and went straight to the staff dormitories and the staff canteen west of the road to eat and rest.

On both sides of the road, staff vehicles were parked on the bike path. Even in the planned green area in front of the factory, various cars were parked closely together. In addition, we saw many workers gathered in a small forest next to the main entrance, chatting and smoking with each other.

As the "Third" in the lithium-ion battery industry, the Chengdu location of CALB is one of nine global locations. The first project is a 20-GWh storage and lithium-ion battery production site. Currently, the project has been completed and put into operation. The production line is running orderly, and you can clearly hear the hum of the machines near the factory.

In fact, in the relatively well-equipped industrial zone of Chengdu Longquanyi, the two battery companies CALB and EVE Energy are neighbors. Not far from there is the company Zeekr.

In addition, before relocating its production westward, CALB had already carried out an eastward relocation, shifting the focus of its capacity from the central region to Changzhou in the eastern province of Jiangsu. Undoubtedly, these two changes reflect the path that the battery production chain has taken from the industrial base to market orientation and then to resource concentration.

According to public information, the CALB Phase 1 project covers an area of 594 mu and has a construction area of about 570,000 square meters. After full completion and reaching full capacity, it is expected that the project can achieve an annual sales revenue of 12 to 15 billion yuan and create 8,000 jobs.

When we asked the guards in the western area of the zone about the occupancy of the staff dormitories and the total number of employees, the guard said, "There are five staff dormitory buildings." An employee we met in front of the factory east of the road said that there were about 3,000 to 4,000 employees at the beginning, but he didn't know the current situation.

Next to the first-phase factory, we saw that the CALB Phase 2 project will start in 139 days. The second project plans to invest 12 billion yuan. It is expected to go into production after the new year. After operation, the capacities and effects of the first and second phases will be integrated, and a total capacity of 50 GWh will be achieved. It is expected that it can achieve an annual sales revenue of 40 billion yuan, create 13,000 new jobs, and stimulate investments in the entire supply chain of over 10 billion yuan.

For Longquanyi, it is lucky that it can build such a large and well-equipped new energy battery industrial cluster.

CALB not only has a location in Longquanyi. In fact, the factory in Pengshan Economic Development Zone in Meishan is even larger. In CALB's global production network with nine locations in China, Europe, and ASEAN, Sichuan Province occupies two places.

Several products of the CALB location in Meishan have become "main attractions" in the industry. These include the "Top High-Performance Battery" for the second generation of the PHEV platform, the first generation of the "Top High-Energy Super Flight Battery", which is already in production, and the planned second generation of the flight battery.

In Longquanyi, not only the expansion of CALB is remarkable, but also that of EVE Energy, another company for lithium-ion batteries and energy storage. In October last year, EVE Energy officially put its factory here into operation. This factory mainly produces 21700- and 26105-type lithium-ion cylindrical batteries, which have the same specifications as the Panasonic batteries supplied to Tesla.

In contrast to CALB, which has concentrated its production capacities, EVE Energy has widely established its facilities in China. The factory we visited is already the 33rd factory of EVE Energy.

At the rather small factory entrance, we saw no people or vehicles. Since it was just the afternoon working time, we could clearly hear the hum of the machines. The total area of the 33rd factory of EVE Energy is about 11,000 square meters, and the annual capacity is nearly 500,000 cells. Currently, the second phase plans to supply an annual capacity of 100 MWh by December 2026.

In addition, on September 2, 2024, the mass production center of the EVE Energy Solid-State Battery Research Institute in Chengdu was officially inaugurated, and the "Longquan II" All-Solid-State Battery was successfully produced. The "Longquan II" is a 10-Ah all-solid-state battery, which is mainly designed for applications in high-end devices such as humanoid robots, aircraft, and AI. Naturally, it will take a few more years before it can be used in vehicles.

Currently, Longquanyi has gathered 10 leading automobile manufacturers and more than 300 suppliers, forming a relatively complete automobile industry ecosystem. Therefore, both CALB and EVE Energy rely on the good industrial foundation here.

Two "Chain Leaders" in Qionglai

We drove southwest from Longquanyi directly to the "Tianfu New Area New Energy and New Materials Industrial Park" in Qionglai to further explore the planning of the new energy industry in Chengdu.

The name of this industrial park in Qionglai clearly points to Chengdu. The park has a planned area of 18.7 square kilometers. It is said that more than 320 companies are located here. The new energy battery material industry has formed an industrial cluster here with Putailai and Rongjie Lithium as the "chain leader" companies. In addition to Rongjie Lithium and Putailai, several other new energy companies such as Changhong, Hongli, and Aiminte are also located here.

We drove around for a long time and found during our investigations and visits that the actual number of companies in the park may deviate from the data. In addition, there are hardly any food supply facilities in this industrial area. The nearest ones are several kilometers away.

"You are not allowed to take photos. Only when the government comes can you take photos." The guard of Rongjie Lithium immediately came out when he saw us taking photos. Only after our questions did he say that there were only about a few dozen companies near the park. Rongjie Lithium itself covers an area of about 400 mu and plays an important role in the park.

Data shows that the company has already built a lithium salt production line with a capacity of 20,000 tons per year and the associated environmental and auxiliary facilities. It can produce 12,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate and 8,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate per year, and at the same time produce 44,300 tons of the by-product anhydrous sodium sulfate (Glauber's salt).

Diagonally opposite the Rongjie Lithium factory is a project called the "Integrated Production Base Project for Lithium Iron Phosphate Cathode Materials of Chengdu Rongjie Lithium". The project mainly includes a lithium carbonate production line, an iron phosphate production line, and a lithium iron phosphate production line.

According to the plan, the project can achieve an annual production of 80,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate products after completion. However, during our field investigation, we found that although the project sign was already in place, the project seemingly had not started yet. There was neither a public notice nor a project bulletin. There was no one in the guardhouse, but it was full of bicycles parked there for charging. The planned construction land behind the sign was overgrown, and no one was to be seen.

Another important company in the park is Putailai. Its subsidiary for membrane materials and coatings - Sichuan Zhuoqin New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. - is located here. The company is adjacent to the project of Sichuan Zihuan Technology. It plans a total investment of 8 billion yuan and covers an area of 645 mu. It is a core supplier for well-known battery companies such as CATL and BYD.

According to the plan, Sichuan Zhuoqin New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. will be built in two phases. The first phase is a project to produce 400 million square meters of lithium-ion battery membranes and 600 million square meters of lithium-ion battery coating membranes per year. The second project plans to produce 1.8 billion square meters of lithium-ion battery membranes and 5.94 billion square meters of lithium-ion battery coating membranes per year and will be completed and put into operation by December 2025.

Sichuan Zihuan Technology is another subsidiary of Putailai, which specializes in the production of anode materials and graphitization. It also plans a project to produce 200,000 tons of high-quality lithium-ion battery anode materials per year.

The building of Zihuan Technology has a total area of 171,400 square meters and looks very impressive from the outside, similar to the Aiways factory we visited earlier. We walked around the factory once and found that the structure of all the production buildings was completed, but it seemed empty. Many windows were broken, although there were many job advertisements online.

These two largest battery material companies have attracted other satellite companies. However, perhaps most people don't know that Rongjie and Putailai are not the real "chain leader" companies. In fact, there are two battery giants behind them.

The parent company of Rongjie Lithium is Rongjie Group. The chairman of Rongjie Group is Lü Xiangyang, the cousin of Wang Chuanfu, the chairman of BYD. Putailai is also interesting. Its co-founder, Chen Wei, comes from Amperex Technology Limited (ATL), the predecessor of CATL. Chen Wei was once the chief technology officer and deputy chairman of research and development at...