This national-level specialized and sophisticated "little giant" is targeting the international battery recycling market.
In recent years, the export performance of the "new three" products has been remarkable. In 2023, their export value exceeded one trillion yuan for the first time, driving the wave of overseas expansion in the upstream and downstream industries. Take the battery industry, which is closely related to the "new three" products, for example. China accounts for 70% of the world's battery production capacity, and more than a quarter of its production is for export. Whether the batteries are directly sold overseas or installed in new - energy vehicles and energy storage systems for export, the batteries produced in China are spreading across the global market.
As Lin Xiao, the founder of BOTREE CIRCULAR, said, "Those who manufacture batteries know best how to recycle them." As the exported batteries gradually enter the end - of - life stage, the battery recycling and remanufacturing industry will witness booming development. As the world's major battery manufacturer, China has a first - mover advantage in recycling technology. Compared with local overseas recyclers, Chinese recyclers are more aware of the battery producers, manufacturing processes, and material compositions. When formulating recycling plans, they can more precisely solve the technical problems in the recycling process.
However, there are significant differences in the ecological environment of the waste battery recycling markets at home and abroad. In China, waste batteries are traded and their prices increase step by step, which belongs to the resource market. In the European and American markets, waste batteries need to be disposed of at a cost, which belongs to the subsidy market. Therefore, although Chinese battery recycling enterprises have mature practices in the domestic market, it is difficult for them to succeed in overseas markets by simply replicating their domestic experience.
"The essence of the overseas expansion of battery recycling is not about enterprises going global, but about the export of technology and services," Lin Xiao said. In the field of overseas expansion of battery recycling technology, BOTREE CIRCULAR does not simply export standardized products, nor does it apply the mature domestic model. Instead, it localizes its domestic technological advantages and develops solutions suitable for the local market.
1. "Those who manufacture batteries know best how to recycle them"
Lin Xiao, the founder of BOTREE CIRCULAR, was once a researcher at the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He developed green extraction technologies for waste materials and mineral resources from the United States and around the world and won the National Technological Invention Award. During his visit to the United States, his research topic was sustainable development. With the development of the battery industry, he was in charge of several horizontal projects in the field of domestic battery materials and has cooperated with leading battery material enterprises in Europe and China for more than a decade. His technical services cover more than 60% of the domestic market share. "I have participated in and witnessed the development process of most Chinese battery material enterprises in the past decade," Lin Xiao said. His cross - experience in academia and industry enables him to understand the recycling governance methods and policy requirements in Europe and the United States, and be familiar with the material compositions, process characteristics, and industrial features of Chinese batteries.
With the rise of China's battery industry and its exports, the demand for battery recycling overseas has also increased rapidly, resonating with Lin Xiao's accumulated technology and successful projects. In 2019, Lin Xiao founded BOTREE CIRCULAR (officially named "Suzhou Botree Circular Technology Co., Ltd."), focusing on the circular utilization of key battery materials. He said that BOTREE CIRCULAR is not positioned as a battery recycling plant, but as a technology service provider.
According to the different types of recycling raw materials (such as scrap materials generated during the battery production process or end - of - life batteries) and the categories of battery materials (including ternary batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries, sodium - ion batteries, solid/semi - solid batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, etc.), BOTREE CIRCULAR customizes recycling solutions, manufactures equipment production lines, and conducts on - site operation and debugging.
For production lines that have been built by customers but cannot meet new requirements (such as changes in raw material types or upgrades in technical standards), BOTREE CIRCULAR provides technological transformation services to help customers achieve technological upgrades. In addition to services for hardware equipment such as production lines, BOTREE CIRCULAR also researches and develops key separation materials required for battery recycling, delivering an integrated solution of "technology + complete production line + key materials + service" to customers.
As the new - energy vehicle industry becomes more popular in developed countries such as those in Europe and the United States, the demand for the battery recycling market continues to grow. Overseas battery recycling has naturally become a supporting demand for the overseas expansion of Chinese batteries. The "Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)" system implemented by the European Union clearly stipulates the principle of "whoever produces, recycles", which means that Chinese battery and new - energy vehicle enterprises need to fulfill the local recycling responsibility requirements when expanding overseas, otherwise, they will face compliance risks.
"It is more advantageous for an independent private enterprise to conduct business overseas. If it weren't for overseas expansion, I actually didn't have to leave the Chinese Academy of Sciences," Lin Xiao admitted. The original intention of founding BOTREE CIRCULAR was actually for overseas expansion. Since its establishment, the number of overseas customers of BOTREE CIRCULAR has increased significantly. Currently, the number of overseas customers is more than three times that of domestic customers.
As a technology service provider, BOTREE CIRCULAR has a relatively small staff size, far less than that of its enterprise customers such as recycling plants. However, in the battery recycling segment, "no company has more talent reserves than BOTREE CIRCULAR," Lin Xiao said. The talent advantage of BOTREE CIRCULAR mainly lies in "diversity" and "internationalization". Most of its employees are doctors graduated from universities in Japan, Europe, the United States, etc. In addition to the Chinese mainland, some members are also stationed in the United States, Europe, and Taiwan region.
2. "The domestic market is a resource market, while the overseas market is a subsidy market"
The battery recycling industry chain is centered around the "circulation of waste batteries" and mainly consists of three stages: the generation, processing, and reuse of waste batteries. According to Lin Xiao, there are fundamental differences in each stage of the industry chain between China and Europe, which means that domestic experience cannot be directly replicated overseas.
Specifically, the generation of waste batteries is the starting point of the recycling industry chain. One source is the scrap materials from the production end, such as unqualified electrode sheets and cells generated during the battery manufacturing process in battery factories. The other is the end - of - life batteries from the consumption end, such as power batteries retired after 5 - 8 years of use in new - energy vehicles or batteries eliminated in the energy storage field. In China, the proportion of these two types of waste batteries is roughly the same. Currently, the overseas market is mainly dominated by end - of - life batteries from the consumption end, and the volume of power batteries and energy storage batteries will increase rapidly year by year in the future.
In terms of battery materials, according to Lin Xiao, there are also significant differences between the waste batteries generated in China and those in Europe and the United States. In the past, ternary batteries dominated the domestic power battery market, but now nearly 90% are lithium iron phosphate batteries. Therefore, in the scrap market, the proportion of lithium iron phosphate batteries is gradually increasing and is basically the same as that of ternary batteries. In the overseas market, ternary batteries are still the mainstream. Although the usage scale of lithium iron phosphate batteries has increased, their proportion is still relatively low.
Secondly, in the processing stage, generally, after waste batteries are sent to recycling plants through channels such as 4S stores of original equipment manufacturers, after - sales networks of battery factories, and third - party recycling points, recycling plants will extract valuable metals from the batteries through various recycling processes and produce primary or intermediate recycled materials such as black powder and battery - grade salts.
In the recycling stage, waste batteries in China can be sold for money, and their prices increase step by step in the circulation process, reaching a relatively high price when they reach the recycling plants. In the European and American markets, the environmental protection standards and compliance requirements for the recycling process are relatively high, and waste batteries often need to be "disposed of at a cost". Enterprises or individuals have to pay the recycling plants for the disposal of waste batteries, and the government will also provide additional subsidies to the recycling plants.
However, due to the high labor costs in Europe and the United States, the electricity costs (especially in Europe) and the prices of chemicals required in the recycling process are much higher than those in China. The prices of some categories are even several times that in China. Therefore, the unit cost of waste battery recycling and processing in overseas markets is significantly higher than that in China.
The differences in the recycling and processing stages of waste batteries between the Chinese and European and American markets lead to fundamental differences in the profit sources of recycling plants. In China, the recycling cost is high, so recycling plants need to maximize the value of waste batteries to obtain greater profits. In the European and American markets, although recycling plants can make money from recycling batteries, the processing cost remains high. As Lin Xiao summarized, "The domestic market is a resource market, while the European and American markets are subsidy markets."
Finally, in the reuse stage of waste batteries, that is, the useful products such as cathode materials, which are the core components of batteries processed by recycling plants, flow back to battery factories to achieve the circular reuse of battery materials. China's battery recycling industry chain has achieved a complete closed - loop. However, Lin Xiao told us that "There is a lack of large - scale battery material enterprises in Europe and the United States, and the battery industry chain is not closed - loop." Local recycling plants have not yet been involved in the direct delivery of battery - grade materials and batteries, and the local market has less demand for electrode sheet repair and regeneration. Therefore, the recycling process is more inclined to primary processing, and the delivered products are mostly relatively primary black powder, high - quality black powder, or battery - grade salts. Many of these materials eventually return to the Asian market in various forms.
3. It's not about products "going out", but about services "going in"
Based on the understanding of the differences in the waste battery industries between China and foreign countries, Lin Xiao believes that the essence of the overseas expansion of battery recycling is not about products "going out", but about the "integration" of technical services. BOTREE CIRCULAR does not copy the mature domestic processes for recycled products in the mature industry chain. Instead, it develops suitable recycling processes and equipment for the overseas market and focuses on product production to meet local needs.
Lin Xiao found that BOTREE CIRCULAR's market positioning of supporting the technical and service needs of recycling plants can also avoid the concerns of overseas customers about "competitive threats", making them more willing to cooperate deeply with BOTREE CIRCULAR.
Currently, the pace of BOTREE CIRCULAR's overseas business expansion is to first establish contact with local partners through technical services. As the cooperation deepens and the trust relationship accumulates, it will then explore the possibility of deeper - level cooperation forms such as joint ventures. Take the publicly disclosed project in Spain as an example. BOTREE CIRCULAR's partner is ONCE, the largest disability service organization in Spain.
"During the project implementation, we first built a demonstration production line for the partner in China so that they could see the actual products. We also obtained the CE certification from the European Union, helped them train future workshop supervisors in Europe, coordinated the teams of Chinese and European partners, and finally transported the equipment to Europe for installation and debugging," Lin Xiao said. Since the partner is a disability service organization, the factory requires that more than 70% of its employees be disabled people. To ensure that disabled people can adapt to the project and the implementation of the plan, in addition to providing technical and equipment support, BOTREE CIRCULAR also participates in the entire project implementation and operation as a shareholder.
In January 2025, BOTREE CIRCULAR established a joint - venture company with ILUNION, a subsidiary of ONCE, and EFT - System to build a recycling plant in Spain with an annual processing capacity of 6,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate batteries, supporting the local recycling and closed - loop of lithium iron phosphate batteries in Europe. The total investment in the project reaches tens of millions of euros.
Lin Xiao said that cooperating with local enterprises can also help BOTREE CIRCULAR's projects obtain local government subsidies. "If Chinese enterprises go overseas directly without proper support, it will be very difficult to establish factories overseas in an unfamiliar environment without a clear - cut policy system and financial subsidies."
According to 36Kr, BOTREE CIRCULAR has recently completed a Series B financing of over 100 million yuan. The funds will be mainly invested in overseas project cooperation and core technology research and development. Currently, BOTREE CIRCULAR has carried out business in more than a dozen countries in Asia - Pacific, Europe, North America, and the Middle East. It provides industrial consulting, technical services, distributed intelligent equipment, and the design, development, supply, and operation of large - scale engineering projects for more than a dozen Fortune Global 500 companies in the energy field and leading domestic and foreign battery and energy enterprises, and has implemented more than 60 projects.
The European market is the core destination for the export of Chinese new - energy vehicles and batteries and is also the largest battery recycling market outside China. Therefore, it will still be the key market for BOTREE CIRCULAR in the future. Although the North American market has experienced short - term fluctuations due to macro - policies and the project implementation cycle in some countries or regions outside Europe is often long, Lin Xiao said that BOTREE CIRCULAR will not completely abandon these markets but will choose to adjust the pace moderately and layout according to the local logic of "where the batteries are installed, they will be recycled in the future".
(Authors: Feng Yaling, Yang Yuexin)