The Frontline | Joining hands with Fangda Group, CATL comprehensively expands zero-carbon business.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited's (CATL) zero-carbon dream extends far beyond batteries.

On February 20, CATL and Liaoning Fangda Group Industrial Co., Ltd. held a strategic cooperation signing ceremony. The two sides will, based on their respective industrial layouts and application advantages, jointly build a highland of a zero-carbon ecological industrial cluster in the fields of energy structure transformation and zero-carbon development.

Liaoning Fangda Group is a large-scale enterprise group with five core sectors: carbon, steel, medicine, business, and aviation. It is a cross-industry, cross-regional, and diversified group with strong international competitive strength. It has five A-share listed companies, with total assets of more than 400 billion yuan and nearly 130,000 employees.

In this signing ceremony, Fangda Carbon, a subsidiary of Liaoning Fangda Group, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with CATL, and Fangda Special Steel and CATL's subsidiary Time Qi Ji also signed a strategic cooperation agreement respectively.

In the former case, Fangda Carbon will give full play to its R & D and production advantages in the field of carbon materials and new carbon materials, and utilize CATL's leading technological innovation capabilities in the 21C Innovation Laboratory, R & D center, and the National Engineering Research Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage Technology to jointly carry out R & D and application cooperation in the field of energy materials.

In the latter case, CATL will jointly build an application scenario for electric heavy trucks with Fangda Special Steel, as well as a zero-carbon factory. They will also jointly research and develop related products such as new energy battery packs and energy storage boxes with low-cost and lightweight hybrid materials, and jointly research related products such as new energy vehicle steering systems, automotive spring flat steel, automotive leaf springs, automotive springs, air suspensions, and CIIC chassis.

That is to say, through this signing, CATL's zero-carbon solutions have covered multiple fields such as new energy vehicle-related components, photovoltaic energy storage, heavy truck battery swapping, electric ships, and green aviation.

In the core battery business, CATL announced its zero-carbon goal in 2023: achieving carbon neutrality in core operations by 2025 and in the entire value chain by 2035.

This also means that by 2025, CATL's battery factories will all become zero-carbon factories, taking the lead in achieving carbon neutrality in the production and manufacturing field; by 2035, all batteries produced by CATL will be zero-carbon batteries, achieving carbon neutrality in the entire value chain from mineral resources to batteries.

While achieving the zero-carbon goal in the core battery business, CATL's zero-carbon task has also extended to more fields such as carbon (battery materials), steel (battery shells), and aviation (battery applications).

Obviously, CATL hopes to build a zero-carbon ecosystem that covers the entire chain of energy production, storage, and consumption. With battery technology as the core, it extends to fields such as energy storage, battery swapping, and energy management. Through carriers such as zero-carbon industrial parks and zero-carbon transportation networks, it integrates fragmented demands and builds multiple zero-carbon scenarios.

In these scenarios, CATL will also deeply cooperate with leading enterprises in high-carbon industries, formulate relevant technical standards, and explore new zero-carbon business models.

The signing with Fangda Group is the best example. After this signing, CATL's zero-carbon business almost includes the entire chain of zero-carbon transformation of high-carbon emission industries such as steel and carbon. These businesses can form a closed loop from zero-carbon energy, zero-carbon scenarios, to zero-carbon industries.

The zero-carbon tasks in these fields are no easier than those in the battery industry, the core business of CATL, or even the larger automotive industry.

Take the steel industry as an example. According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the steel industry accounts for about 7% - 9% of the total global carbon dioxide emissions, basically the same as the total carbon emissions of the global automotive industry.

In addition to Fangda Group, CATL previously also strategically cooperated with Nanjing Iron and Steel Group to develop a panoramic zero-carbon solution, and to cooperate in areas such as the intelligentization of industrial products, the electrification of engineering machinery equipment, the application of lightweight hybrid materials, the green transportation of electric heavy trucks, and the application of photovoltaic energy.

From the goal of "achieving carbon neutrality in the entire value chain by 2035" to the strategic cooperation with Nanjing Iron and Steel Group and Fangda Group, CATL is transforming from a zero-carbon technology exporter in a single field to a more comprehensive and ecological zero-carbon infrastructure supplier.

Carbon emissions are a hurdle that the manufacturing industry must overcome in the future. This is an inevitable path from high-speed development to high-quality development, and it is also an important weight for Chinese enterprises to move from domestic competition to the international stage.

CATL has taken the lead in zero-carbon and has begun to gain more recognition internationally. In the future, it can also establish a new profit growth pole through its first-mover advantage and lead more enterprises in the ecosystem to jointly build a new zero-carbon business model.