Category: Electric

Gotion reaches deal with Edison Power to tap Japan’s energy storage market

Gotion and Edison Power have a planned sales target of 1 GWh in the first year of the partnership, rising to 2 GWh per year from the second year onwards.

(Image credit: Gotion High-tech)

Chinese battery giant Gotion High-tech and Japan's Edison Power Co Ltd have reached a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly tap the energy storage market in Japan.

The two signed the agreement on March 15 to jointly develop the Japanese energy storage and battery recycling market and promote Gotion's products in the Japanese market, according to a press release from the Chinese battery maker today.

Gotion and Edison Power have a planned sales target of 1 GWh in the first year of the partnership, rising to 2 GWh per year from the second year onward.

Gotion will provide battery cells, modules and BMS, while Edison Power will be responsible for Japanese energy storage customer management, EPC services, and energy storage system operation and maintenance.

In addition, Gotion will also work with Edison Power to establish a recycling system for recycled energy storage batteries in Japan, according to the release.

With the development of global renewable energy and the revision of Japan's Electricity Business Act in May 2022, new opportunities will arise for the development of Japan's large-scale energy storage battery industry, according to the release.

Edison Power, which began developing and manufacturing energy storage battery systems in 1991, is also developing a solar power business and a biomass power business.

Gotion, one of China's power battery giants, ranked eighth in the world with a 2.1 percent share in January, according to a report released earlier this month by South Korean market research firm SNE Research.

In China, Gotion installed 0.78 GWh of power batteries in February, ranking fourth with a 3.58 percent share, according to data previously released by the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance (CABIA).

The energy storage battery business is Gotion's second-largest business after power batteries.

In the first half of 2022, Gotion's revenue was RMB 8.6 billion, of which the power battery business contributed RMB 6.6 billion, or 76.51 percent, according to the company's semi-annual report.

Gotion's energy storage battery business generated RMB 1.28 billion in revenue in the first half of last year, contributing 14.8 percent.

Gotion to build $2.36 billion battery materials plant in Michigan

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Lithium prices see biggest drop this year in China as decline accelerates

's management previously said they expect lithium carbonate prices to fall back to RMB 200,000 per ton this year, boosting gross margins.

The price of lithium, a key raw material for batteries, is accelerating its decline.

The price of battery-grade lithium carbonate in China today was down RMB 12,500 per ton ($1,814 per ton) from last Friday, with the latest average price quoted at RMB 312,500 per ton, according to My Steel.

That latest average price is down 3.85 percent from Friday, the biggest drop of the year, data monitored by CnEVPost show.

On Friday, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate in China fell RMB 8,000, or 2.4 percent, the previous biggest drop of the year.

Industrial-grade lithium carbonate also fell by RMB 12,500 per ton today, with the average price quoted at RMB 272,500 per ton. Its 4.39 percent drop was also the highest of the year.

The average price of industrial-grade lithium carbonate fell RMB 7,000 per ton to RMB 295,000 per ton on March 16, the first time it has fallen below RMB 300,000 per ton in this down cycle.

The average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate is now barely above RMB 300,000 and is at risk of falling below that mark in the next day or two.

In the two years prior to last November, lithium carbonate prices were soaring alongside the rapid growth of China's new energy vehicle (NEV) industry.

On November 23, 2022, the battery-grade lithium carbonate price rose to RMB 590,000 per ton in China, up about 14 times from RMB 41,000 per ton in June 2020.

Since then, however, lithium prices have continued to fall, with industrial-grade lithium carbonate prices falling below RMB 400,000 on February 22 and battery-grade lithium carbonate prices falling below that mark on February 28.

In late February, a local media report that lithium supplies could be disrupted by the production halt in a mining hub in China did not stop lithium carbonate prices from continuing to fall.

As of today, lithium carbonate prices are down about 47 percent from last November's highs and are down about 40 percent so far this year.

The drop in lithium carbonate prices is expected to ease the cost pressures faced by electric vehicle manufacturers.

NIO had previously mentioned that a drop in lithium carbonate price of RMB 100,000 per ton would increase its gross margin by 2 percentage points.

NIO's management said in a conference call with analysts after the March 1 earnings announcement that they expect lithium carbonate prices to fall to RMB 200,000 per ton this year, boosting gross margins.

($1 = RMB 6.8896)

Full text: NIO Q4 earnings call transcript

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