Digging Deep: How Sichuan Aims to Challenge Jiangsu's Dominance in the Battery Industry with 500 Billion Yuan
For readers and the media in the eastern region, the concept of the "Great Western Migration" is somewhat obscure. In fact, it is a policy initiative announced by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on September 25, 2024, to guide the orderly transfer of industries from the eastern region to the central and western regions, and from central cities to the hinterland.
An important part of the "Great Western Migration" is the establishment of the battery industry in the southwest. Against the backdrop of the accelerating global energy transition, the new energy battery industry has become one of the core sectors. As an important production area for raw materials of new energy batteries, Sichuan accounts for 57% of the country's total lithium ore resources, boasting unique resource advantages.
Moreover, Sichuan is rich in hydropower resources and has sufficient power generation. It also has a superior geographical location and is adjacent to Chongqing, a major automobile manufacturing hub. With these multiple advantages combined, Sichuan and its surrounding areas have gradually become an important gathering place for the new energy battery industry.
Last year, Zhai Gang, the director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, predicted that by 2025, the output value of the entire industrial chain of power batteries in the province would reach 500 billion yuan.
To clarify the layout ideas of this region in the new energy sector, Auto Commune conducted a field survey. Starting from Longquanyi in Chengdu, passing through Qionglai, and then reaching Meishan, we visited several battery enterprises and new energy industrial parks, and closely observed the development pattern featuring distinct characteristics and mutual support.
Two Rounds of Migration of CALB
When we arrived at the first - phase project of CALB in Longquanyi, Chengdu, it happened to be the lunch break time. Workers streamed out of the factory on the east side of the road and headed straight to the restaurant and dormitory area on the west side of the road for meals and rest.
On both sides of the road, employees' vehicles occupied the non - motorized lanes. Even in the planned green area in front of the factory building, various cars were parked densely. Additionally, in the small woods next to the main entrance, we saw many employees gathering together, chatting and smoking.
As the third - largest player in the power battery industry, the Chengdu base of CALB, one of its nine global bases, is a 20GWh energy storage and power battery production base for the first - phase project. Currently, this project has been officially completed and entered the production stage, and the production line is operating in an orderly manner. The roar of the machines can be clearly heard near the factory area.
Actually, in the well - equipped industrial park in Longquanyi, Chengdu, CALB and EVE Energy, two major battery enterprises, are neighbors. Not far from these two enterprises is ZEEKR Auto.
Moreover, before the westward migration of CALB's industry, it had already experienced a round of eastward movement, shifting the focus of its production capacity from the central region to Changzhou, Jiangsu Province in the eastern region. Undoubtedly, these two rounds of changes reflect the path of the battery industry chain migrating from an industry - based orientation to a market - oriented one, and then to a resource - concentrated one.
According to public information, the first - phase project of CALB covers an area of 594 mu and has a construction area of about 570,000 square meters. After the project is fully completed and reaches full production, it is expected to achieve an annual output value of 12 - 15 billion yuan and create 8,000 jobs.
When we asked the on - duty security guard in the western park about the occupancy rate of the dormitories and the total number of employees, the security guard said, "There are five employee dormitory buildings inside." An employee we met in front of the main entrance of the eastern factory area said that initially, there were about 3,000 - 4,000 employees, but he was not sure about the current situation.
Next to the first - phase factory area, we also saw that the second - phase project of CALB was in its 139 - day countdown. The second - phase project plans to invest 12 billion yuan and is expected to start mass production after the Chinese New Year next year. After production starts, the production capacity and efficiency of the first and second - phase projects will be integrated. When fully operational, it will have a production capacity of 50GWh. It is expected to achieve an annual output value of 40 billion yuan, create 13,000 new jobs, and drive upstream and downstream industrial chain investments of over 10 billion yuan.
For Longquanyi, it is a great blessing to build such a large - scale and complete - industrial - chain new energy battery industry cluster.
Moreover, CALB not only has a base in Longquanyi. In fact, its factory in Pengshan Economic Development Zone, Meishan, is even larger. Among CALB's nine industrial base layouts in China, Europe, and ASEAN, Sichuan Province occupies two seats.
Meanwhile, several products from CALB's Meishan base have become "highlights" in the industry. These include the "top - tier high - power battery" dedicated to the second - generation PHEV platform, the mass - produced first - generation "top - tier high - energy - super flight battery", and the planned second - generation flight - dedicated battery.
In Longquanyi, in addition to CALB, the layout of EVE Energy, another power and energy storage battery enterprise, is also attracting attention. In October last year, EVE Energy's factory here was officially put into production. This factory mainly produces 21700 and 26105 type ternary lithium cylindrical batteries, which have the same specifications as the Panasonic batteries supplied to Tesla.
Different from CALB's concentrated industrial focus, EVE Energy has a diversified layout in China. The factory we visited this time is its 33rd factory.
At the seemingly small factory entrance, we didn't see many people or vehicles. However, as it was the afternoon working time, the roar of the machines could be clearly heard. The total area of EVE Energy's 33rd factory is about 11,000 square meters, with an annual production capacity of nearly 500,000 battery cells. Currently, its second - phase plan aims to achieve an annual production capacity of 100MWh by December 2026.
Furthermore, on September 2, 2024, the Chengdu mass - production base of EVE Energy's Solid - State Battery Research Institute was officially unveiled, and the "Longquan No. 2" all - solid - state battery was successfully rolled off the production line. The "Longquan No. 2" is a 10Ah all - solid - state battery, mainly targeting high - end equipment application fields such as humanoid robots, low - altitude aircraft, and AI. Of course, it may take a few more years for automotive applications.
Currently, Longquanyi has gathered 10 leading vehicle - manufacturing enterprises and more than 300 key parts and components enterprises, forming a relatively complete automotive industry ecosystem. Therefore, both CALB and EVE Energy actually value the good industrial foundation here.
Two "Chain Leaders" in Qionglai
Leaving Longquanyi and driving southwest towards the "Tianfu New Area New Energy and New Materials Industrial Park" in Qionglai, we continued to explore the layout of Chengdu's new energy industry.
The name of this industrial park in Qionglai clearly shows its proximity to Chengdu. The planned area of the industrial park is 18.7 square kilometers. It is said that more than 320 enterprises have settled in, among which the new energy battery material industry has formed an industrial cluster with Putailai and Rongjie Lithium Industry as the "chain - leading" enterprises. In addition to Rongjie Lithium Industry and Putailai, many other new energy enterprises such as Changhong, Hongli, and Aimente have also settled in.
However, after driving around for a long time and conducting on - the - spot investigations and interviews, we found that there seemed to be a certain gap between the actual number of enterprises in the park and the reported data. Moreover, there are few living facilities in this industrial area, and the nearest ones are several kilometers away.
"You can't take pictures. Only government officials are allowed to do so," the security guard of Rongjie Lithium Industry immediately came out to stop us when he saw us taking pictures. After our inquiry, he revealed that there are only about dozens of enterprises in the nearby park. Rongjie Lithium Industry itself covers an area of about 400 mu and occupies an important position in the park.
Data shows that the enterprise has built a 20,000 - ton/year lithium salt production line and supporting public auxiliary and environmental protection facilities, which can achieve an annual output of 12,000 tons of battery - grade lithium carbonate, 8,000 tons of battery - grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate, and also produce 44,300 tons of by - product anhydrous sodium sulfate (Glauber's salt).
Diagonally opposite the factory area of Rongjie Lithium Industry, there is a planned "Chengdu Rongjie Lithium Industry Lithium Iron Phosphate Cathode Material Integrated Production Base Project" to be built on the reserved land. The project mainly includes a lithium carbonate production line, a ferric phosphate production line, and a lithium iron phosphate production line.
According to the plan, the project can achieve an annual output of 80,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate products after completion. However, during the on - site investigation, it was found that although the project's signboard had been set up, the project itself seemed not to have started. There were no relevant public notice boards, no project announcements were posted, the guard room was empty but filled with bicycles parked temporarily for charging, and the reserved land inside the signboard was overgrown with weeds. There was no sign of people in the entire area.
Another heavy - weight enterprise in the park, Putailai, has its membrane material and coating enterprise, Sichuan Zhuoqin New Material Technology Co., Ltd., here. This company is adjacent to the project of Sichuan Zihuan Technology. With a total investment of 8 billion yuan and an area of 645 mu, it is a core supplier to well - known battery enterprises such as CATL and BYD.
According to the plan, Sichuan Zhuoqin New Material Technology Co., Ltd. will be constructed in two phases. The first - phase project is to produce 400 million square meters of lithium - ion battery separators and 600 million square meters of lithium - ion battery coated separators annually. The second - phase project plans to build a production line with an annual output of 1.8 billion square meters of lithium - ion battery separators and 5.94 billion square meters of lithium - ion battery coated separators, and it is scheduled to be completed and put into production by December 2025.
Sichuan Zihuan Technology is another subsidiary of Putailai's anode material and graphitization division, which is also promoting the integrated construction project of an annual output of 200,000 tons of high - performance lithium - ion battery anode materials.
The total construction area of Zihuan Technology's factory building is 171,400 square meters, and it looks very grand from the outside, similar to the Aiways Automobile factory we visited before. After walking around the factory area, it was obvious that the structures of all the factory buildings in the production area had been enclosed, but it seemed to lack vitality. Many of the window glasses were broken, although there were many job recruitment notices online.
These two largest battery material enterprises have driven other satellite enterprises. However, what most people may not know is that Rongjie and Putailai are not the real "chain - leading" enterprises. In fact, there are two battery giants standing behind them.
The parent company of Rongjie Lithium Industry is Rongjie Group. The chairman of Rongjie Group, Lü Xiangyang, is 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 Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL). Chen Wei once served as the engineering director and R & D vice - president of ATL and was a colleague and comrade - in - arms of Zeng Yuqun, the chairman of CATL.
When it comes to the relationship with BYD and CATL, the situation is quite complex. In short, these two new energy material enterprises serve battery enterprises and are very important links in the supply chain, showing a phenomenon of concentration among leading enterprises. It should be noted that CATL's layout in Sichuan is mainly concentrated in Yibin.
In addition to these four battery enterprises, Honeycomb Energy has set up production bases in Chengdu, Suining, Dazhou and other places, with a planned production capacity of over 110GWh, and has also established a southwest R & D base in Chengdu. Another enterprise, Sunwoda, has invested 8 billion yuan in Deyang to build a 20GW lithium - battery and energy - storage industry production base. After Sichuan has gathered six major battery enterprises, it is full of confidence in the take - off of the industry.
Benefiting from the Great Western Migration
When it comes to the background of this investigation, it is, of course, the "Great Western Migration" that started in 2021.