Province completes industrial chain from mining to production to attract top-tier firms

East China's Jiangxi province is actively leveraging its advantages in upstream lithium resources to expand downstream sectors such as battery and electric vehicle manufacturing, with a view to becoming a leading industrial cluster.

The province has already formed three major lithium battery industrial bases in Yichun, Xinyu, and Ganzhou, and various clusters for lithium battery manufacturing in cities such as Nanchang, Shangrao, Pingxiang and Fuzhou.

Last year, the total value of Jiangxi's lithium battery and new energy industry reached 406.51 billion yuan ($57 billion), a 120.3 percent year-on-year growth, according to the provincial government.

The province has developed a complete industrial chain covering mining and production of major battery materials, lithium batteries, new energy vehicles and power storage facilities, said Jiang Mingcheng, deputy head of the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Jiangxi Province.

Yichun, a city in the northwest of Jiangxi with abundant lithium resources, is optimizing its business environment to attract top-tier lithium battery companies.

In September, Yichun launched an action plan to promote the development of the new energy sector with an emphasis on the lithium battery industry, aiming to advance the industry chain toward high-end, intelligent, green and integrated development.

The city hopes its lithium battery and new energy industry will achieve a revenue of 250 billion yuan by 2026.

To realize this vision, the local government said in the action plan that it will intensify lithium-rich mica mineral resource extraction, develop technologies for extracting lithium from salt lakes and lithium spodumene, and enhance its industrial ecosystem.

Further efforts will also be made to promote the progress of major projects from battery giants like Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd and Gotion High-tech, to further expand the production capacity of lithium carbonate, battery materials and batteries.

CATL's first project in Yichun, the Yichun Times Battery Factory Phase I, garnered a total investment of 13.5 billion yuan with a planned annual production capacity of 50 gigawatt-hours for lithium-ion batteries and energy storage batteries. The project's first battery cell factory has been put into operation.

Tang Jianhua, director of operations at Yichun Times, said after the first battery cell factory reaches its planned capacity, the annual output will be enough to power about 500,000 electric vehicles.

Increased R&D

Besides supporting leading battery makers to set up branches in Yichun, the local government said the city will also promote the establishment of research and development institutions by leading enterprises like CATL, as well as green development of lithium resources, recycling of used lithium batteries, and lithium slag utilization.

Last year, Yichun produced over 140,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate, accounting for about one-third of the country's total. In just three years, revenues from the lithium battery and new energy industry in Yichun had grown fivefold, from less than 20 billion yuan in 2020 to 111.7 billion yuan in 2022.

Similarly, in the southern part of Jiangxi, Ganzhou, capitalizing on its resource advantages and industrial base, has introduced innovation incentives and favorable policies for digital infrastructure, and to attract talent to strongly support the new energy industry.

Ganzhou's focus on new energy development includes steel shell lithium batteries, pouch-cell batteries and industries relevant to the industry chain. It said further efforts are also expected to nurture specialized and sophisticated enterprises that produce new and unique products.

Ganzhou Haohai New Materials Co Ltd, a company specializing in recycling waste lithium batteries and other lithium-containing materials, is located in Longnan, Ganzhou. The company saw revenue from its main businesses reach 120 million yuan in 2022.

"Thanks to government support, we managed to commence production quickly, providing a sense of confidence to seize development opportunities in a favorable business environment," said Liao Longjiang, an executive at the company.

As a key part of Ganzhou's efforts to develop the lithium battery industry, Longnan, where Ganzhou Haohai is located, is striving to build a 100 billion yuan lithium battery industry cluster, said Long Haibin, deputy mayor of Longnan.

In western Jiangxi, Xinyu, a city home to over 70 lithium battery companies including several industry leaders like Ganfeng Lithium, has formed a relatively complete industry chain with products being exported to the United States, Japan, South Korea and some European countries, according to the local government.

Statistics from Xinyu Customs showed that in the first half of this year, the city's export of lithium battery products reached 11.92 billion yuan, marking a 94 percent year-on-year increase and accounting for 84.4 percent of the city's total exports.

Ganfeng Lithium boasts an annual production capacity of 81,000 tons of lithium hydroxide, accounting for around 20 percent of the global share in terms of production volume, making it the largest lithium hydroxide production base globally.

Lithium hydroxide exports require high supervision standards, and Customs inspection is mandatory before goods are shipped. With a rapid increase in orders from overseas, the declaration workload has surged, leading to a growing demand for efficient inspection and rapid Customs clearance by businesses.

This year, Xinyu Customs has actively responded to the concerns of local lithium battery companies by implementing reforms and launching a new inspection mechanism.

"The new inspection mechanism treats goods with the same packaging, variety, composition and content as one inspection batch. After a single successful inspection, they can be divided into multiple batches for separate export, which meet the need for more efficient and flexible export from business," said Chen Fangping, an official of Xinyu Customs.

According to Xinyu Customs, the new mechanism reduces the declaration workload for companies while maintaining the quality of supervision. It enables same-day declaration, clearance and shipping, catering to the businesses' need for improved efficiency.

Since the launch of the new mechanism, companies have reduced their declaration workload by about 30 percent, and each export order can be delivered about three days faster, according to the local government.

In the first half of this year, Xinyu exported lithium hydroxide worth 11.51 billion yuan, a 94.9 percent year-on-year increase, making it the top lithium hydroxide exporting city in the country, the local government said.

While cities in Jiangxi are ramping up efforts to develop the lithium battery industry, some cities are eyeing downstream NEV manufacturing to generate new growth points.

Fuzhou, a city located in east Jiangxi, initiated the establishment of an NEV technology industrial park, aiming to establish a comprehensive NEV and NEV component production base encompassing complete industry chains such as vehicle assembly, electric motors, electronic controls and batteries.

Once completed, it will have the potential to achieve an annual revenue of 40 billion yuan and provide employment to 40,000 individuals. Last year, the park's automotive and component manufacturing sectors generated a total revenue of 24.22 billion yuan, according to the local government.

Currently, the first phase of the NEV project is fully operational, while the second phase is under construction.