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first Chinese company to build LFP battery cathode plant outside of China","lopal-first-chinese-company-to-build-lfp-battery-cathode-plant-outside-of-china","article/lopal-first-chinese-company-to-build-lfp-battery-cathode-plant-outside-of-china",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":571,"content":581,"excerpt":672,"featured":50,"reporter":673,"_editable":677,"component":678,"seo_title":553,"categories":679,"visibility":685,"author_company":49,"featured_image":686,"seo_description":672,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":691,"formattedArticleDate":692},"61db34fb-ed37-4ba9-ac77-d98fc67e4757","2021-11-09 00:00",[560,563,566,568],{"slug":561,"name":562},"china","China",{"slug":564,"name":565},"indonesia","Indonesia",{"slug":567,"name":521},"lfp",{"slug":569,"name":570},"lopal","Lopal",[572],{"slug":573,"name":574,"content":575},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":576,"image":577,"bio":579,"linkedin":580},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":578},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/14738033ec/matthew-bird.jpeg","Matthew writes, edits and produces content for Benchmark Intelligence and Benchmark Source across the whole mine to grid supply chain. He also acts as a liaison to the press. He has a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Nottingham.","https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdmatthew/",{"type":582,"content":583},"doc",[584,591,596,601,616,621,626,631,636,649,654,659,664],{"type":585,"attrs":586,"content":587},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[588],{"text":589,"type":590},"China’s Lopal has become the first Chinese company to announce plans to produce iron-based cathode materials for lithium ion batteries outside of China, with a deal to construct a plant in Indonesia.","text",{"type":585,"attrs":592,"content":593},{"textAlign":49},[594],{"text":595,"type":590},"The investment is the first sign of China’s move to expand its dominance in cheaper lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) technologies outside of its borders as carmakers such as Tesla ramp up use of the batteries.",{"type":585,"attrs":597,"content":598},{"textAlign":49},[599],{"text":600,"type":590},"Nanjing-based Lopal said it would spend $235 million to build a 100,000 tonnes per year cathode plant in Indonesia’s Morowali Industrial Park in Sulawesi, which is emerging as a key battery materials cluster in South-East Asia.",{"type":585,"attrs":602,"content":603},{"textAlign":49},[604,606,614],{"text":605,"type":590},"The use of LFP batteries has surged in China this year, ",{"text":607,"type":590,"marks":608},"following their adoption by carmakers such as Tesla ",[609],{"type":610,"attrs":611},"link",{"href":612,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":613},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/lfp-prismatic-cells-at-core-of-teslas-china-strategy","url",{"text":615,"type":590},"and BYD. Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk said this week that LFP will be used in all its medium range vehicles and for stationary storage while nickel cathodes will be reserved for long range vehicles.",{"type":585,"attrs":617,"content":618},{"textAlign":49},[619],{"text":620,"type":590},"LFP chemistries are set to account for 21.3% of global battery cell demand this year according to Benchmark’s Lithium ion Battery Database, encouraging further investment in LFP cathode capacity.",{"type":585,"attrs":622,"content":623},{"textAlign":49},[624],{"text":625,"type":590},"China accounts for almost all the world’s production of LFP batteries. But it could now expand this production expertise globally as the key global patents protecting the technology are set to expire this year and next.",{"type":585,"attrs":627,"content":628},{"textAlign":49},[629],{"text":630,"type":590},"The main LFP patents are owned by a consortium made up of Johnson Matthey, Hydro-Québec, Université de Montréal and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Companies have to pay a license fee to the consortium to produce LFP batteries using the patented methods.",{"type":585,"attrs":632,"content":633},{"textAlign":49},[634],{"text":635,"type":590},"LFP-based batteries are cheaper than alternatives since they contain no cobalt or nickel. But the batteries store less energy per unit of weight, meaning cars using them generally have less range.",{"type":585,"attrs":637,"content":638},{"textAlign":49},[639,641,647],{"text":640,"type":590},"LFP’s renaissance has not been limited to its growing use in electric vehicles and it has benefited from the build out of energy storage systems (ESS) in China in the past year, particularly for ",{"text":642,"type":590,"marks":643},"5G base stations",[644],{"type":610,"attrs":645},{"href":646,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":613},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/5g-technology-to-expand-lithium-ions-battery-empire",{"text":648,"type":590},", which primarily use LFP batteries as backup power sources.",{"type":585,"attrs":650,"content":651},{"textAlign":49},[652],{"text":653,"type":590},"However, despite the overall momentum towards LFP, Benchmark still anticipates that the majority of passenger EVs deployed outside China will remain focused on nickel-based cathode technologies, due to the continued emphasis on energy density improvements.",{"type":585,"attrs":655,"content":656},{"textAlign":49},[657],{"text":658,"type":590},"Lopal, whose main products include lubricating oil, said its subsidiary will hold 70% of the joint venture, called PT. Lithium New Energy Technology Asia-Pacific. The remainder will be owned by a Singapore-based company Stellar Investment PTE, an investment company whose chairman is Li Ruiling.",{"type":585,"attrs":660,"content":661},{"textAlign":49},[662],{"text":663,"type":590},"Lopal bought some LFP cathode assets from Chinese battery materials producer BTR in April. Shenzhen-based BTR is still a producer of high nickel cathodes.",{"type":585,"attrs":665,"content":666},{"textAlign":49},[667],{"text":668,"type":590,"marks":669},"By Henry Sanderson",[670],{"type":671},"italic","China’s Lopal has become the first Chinese company to announce plans to produce iron-based cathode materials for lithium ion batteries outside of China, with a deal to construct a plant in Indonesia. The investment is the first sign of China’s move to expand its dominance in cheaper lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) technologies outside of its borders […]",[674],{"slug":573,"name":574,"content":675},{"job_title":576,"image":676,"bio":579,"linkedin":580},{"filename":578},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"61db34fb-ed37-4ba9-ac77-d98fc67e4757\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[680,683],{"slug":681,"name":682},"batteries","Batteries",{"slug":684,"name":299},"cathode","private",{"id":49,"alt":687,"name":687,"focus":687,"title":687,"source":687,"filename":688,"copyright":687,"fieldtype":689,"meta_data":690,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/cefc68f5b4/bm-morowali.jpg","asset",{"alt":687,"title":687,"source":687,"copyright":687},"Nov 09, 2021","9th November 2021",[],[],1792773932127]