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supply","bankruptcy-of-chinas-manganese-king-adds-uncertainty-to-battery-supply","article/bankruptcy-of-chinas-manganese-king-adds-uncertainty-to-battery-supply",{"_uid":547,"date":548,"tags":549,"editor":553,"content":563,"excerpt":667,"featured":50,"reporter":668,"_editable":672,"component":673,"seo_title":543,"categories":674,"visibility":678,"author_company":49,"featured_image":679,"seo_description":667,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":683,"formattedArticleDate":684},"47212413-f019-4e03-aebc-54208c775282","2023-10-13 00:00",[550],{"slug":551,"name":552},"china","China",[554],{"slug":555,"name":556,"content":557},"didi-bostock","Didi Bostock",{"job_title":558,"image":559,"bio":561,"linkedin":562},"Editor - Energy Transition & Economics",{"filename":560},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/2c5ca5c1a3/didi-bostock.jpeg","Didi is the Energy Transition & Economics Editor at Benchmark, covering a broad range of markets across the energy transition. His remit spans from downstream sectors such as BESS and EVs, through to midstream such as new technologies and battery production, to upstream critical minerals mining. He also leads on financial analysis across these supply chains, alongside in-depth policy analysis.\n","https://www.linkedin.com/in/didi-bostock-656342198/",{"type":564,"content":565},"doc",[566,573,578,593,598,603,616,621,626,631,636,645,652,657,662],{"type":567,"attrs":568,"content":569},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[570],{"text":571,"type":572},"The bankruptcy of China’s largest manganese producer adds more uncertainty to the future supply of manganese sulphate for lithium ion batteries. ","text",{"type":567,"attrs":574,"content":575},{"textAlign":49},[576],{"text":577,"type":572},"Ningxia Tianyuan Manganese Industry was unable to pay its debts and filed for bankruptcy last month, according to Chinese media reports. The company was founded in 2003 and led by chairman Jia Tianjiang, the richest man in Ningxia province, who was known as the “manganese king.” ",{"type":567,"attrs":579,"content":580},{"textAlign":49},[581,583,591],{"text":582,"type":572},"There is no indication that the bankruptcy filing has impacted operations, but it could further delay or scupper the company’s planned 1 million tonne gross capacity manganese sulphate project. The project was set to account for around 42% of total potential Chinese processing capacity, according to Benchmark’s ",{"text":584,"type":572,"marks":585},"Manganese Sulphate Market Outlook",[586],{"type":587,"attrs":588},"link",{"href":589,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":590},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/forecasts/manganese/reports/","url",{"text":592,"type":572},". ",{"type":567,"attrs":594,"content":595},{"textAlign":49},[596],{"text":597,"type":572},"TMI, as it is known, is the largest company in China’s Ningxia province with over 10,000 employees. But lower manganese prices in China have left it unable to pay its debts. ",{"type":567,"attrs":599,"content":600},{"textAlign":49},[601],{"text":602,"type":572},"At the end of 2022 it had RMB 142.8 billion ($19.5 billion) in total assets, and total debt of RMB 118.4 billion, according to reports, and additional RMB 36 billion of guaranteed debts. ",{"type":567,"attrs":604,"content":605},{"textAlign":49},[606,608,614],{"text":607,"type":572},"Currently over ",{"text":609,"type":572,"marks":610},"96% of high-purity manganese sulphate supply for batteries comes from China",[611],{"type":587,"attrs":612},{"href":613,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":590},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/infographic-chinas-lithium-ion-battery-supply-chain-dominance",{"text":615,"type":572},", according to Benchmark.  ",{"type":567,"attrs":617,"content":618},{"textAlign":49},[619],{"text":620,"type":572},"If the project is cancelled or not bought by another company, the manganese sulphate deficit could come two years earlier around 2026 to 2027, according to Anna Fleming, a consultant at Benchmark. ",{"type":567,"attrs":622,"content":623},{"textAlign":49},[624],{"text":625,"type":572},"“This scenario could see the project, or at least some phases of it cancelled,” she said. ",{"type":567,"attrs":627,"content":628},{"textAlign":49},[629],{"text":630,"type":572},"TMI was going to produce manganese sulphate from electrolytic manganese metal (EMM), a process that could make it difficult for any buyer of the asset, since it only potentially makes sense where there is integration with low cost EMM production, Fleming said. ",{"type":567,"attrs":632,"content":633},{"textAlign":49},[634],{"text":635,"type":572},"Still, the company has experienced problems in the past, and has faced bankruptcy at least four times. It’s the most important industrial company in Ningxia, so could see support from the provincial government. ",{"type":567,"attrs":637,"content":638},{"textAlign":49},[639],{"type":640,"attrs":641},"image",{"id":49,"alt":642,"src":643,"title":49,"source":49,"copyright":49,"meta_data":644},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/53617fefc0/bm-image-47.png",{},{"type":646,"attrs":647,"content":649},"heading",{"level":648,"textAlign":49},4,[650],{"text":651,"type":572},"Rising battery demand",{"type":567,"attrs":653,"content":654},{"textAlign":49},[655],{"text":656,"type":572},"Demand for manganese in lithium ion batteries is increasing as battery producers add the mineral into lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries to produce LMFP chemistries, which have higher energy density.",{"type":567,"attrs":658,"content":659},{"textAlign":49},[660],{"text":661,"type":572},"Manganese is largely consumed in lithium-ion batteries as a manganese sulphate salt in the production of cathode precursor (pCAM) before lithiation and production of cathode active material (CAM).",{"type":567,"attrs":663,"content":664},{"textAlign":49},[665],{"text":666,"type":572},"Manganese demand from cathodes is set to increase from 225,000 tonnes of manganese contained in 2025 to 708,000 by 2030, according to Benchmark. ","The bankruptcy of China’s largest manganese producer adds more uncertainty to the future supply of manganese sulphate for lithium ion batteries. Ningxia Tianyuan Manganese Industry was unable to pay its debts and filed for bankruptcy last month, according to Chinese media reports. The company was founded in 2003 and led by chairman Jia Tianjiang, the […]",[669],{"slug":555,"name":556,"content":670},{"job_title":558,"image":671,"bio":561,"linkedin":562},{"filename":560},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"47212413-f019-4e03-aebc-54208c775282\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[675],{"slug":676,"name":677},"manganese","Manganese","private",{"id":49,"alt":642,"name":642,"focus":642,"title":642,"source":642,"filename":680,"copyright":642,"fieldtype":681,"meta_data":682,"is_external_url":51},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/4ffcfe0ae7/bm-ningxia.jpg","asset",{"alt":642,"title":642,"source":642,"copyright":642},"Oct 13, 2023","13th October 2023",[],[],1780500960148]