china

Global lead consumption will grow less than expected due to a slowdown in demand from Chinese lead-acid battery manufacturers, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

The EIU sees global lead consumption at 3.1% in 2014/15, down from an earlier estimate of 3.6%, primarily due to China continuing to destock lead battery supplies, emission monitoring is tightened and further outdated capacity is closed.

Samsung SDI broke ground on August 18 on a lithium-ion battery factory in the Chinese city of Xian.

The factory will be operational by October 2015 and produce some 40,000 units of battery cells annually to equip electric cars, the company said in a statement.

Chinese battery company Camel Group has bought Yangzhou-based Apollo Battery for Rmb220m ($355.98m).

The company acquired 100% of the company from two Australian shareholders, Oriental Technologies and Indeveno Industrial Supply.

Highpower International has received Rmb3.86m ($622,200) from state funds to develop its PV and off-grid energy storage systems (ESS).

The funds, given by Development and Reform Commission of Shenzhen Municipality, will be mainly spent on development and production equipment in order to accelerate production for Highpower’s residential ESS, the company said.

Highpower’s subsidiary Icon Energy Systems recently introduced an ESS-line, which features a lithium-ion battery, solar cell panel and inverter output device, charged by PV and commercial grid. The product line ranges from 0.5kWh to 15kWh and aims to serve the needs of commercial and residential power systems, solar power, back-up emergency power and outdoor uses.

George Pan, chairman and CEO of Highpower said: “Both central and local governments of China are committed to nurturing and favoring the development of the clean energy industry. We continue to benefit from increasing government support and intend to leverage our expertise and production capability to increase our pipeline of rechargeable battery products.”

The global energy storage market is expected to grow fast over the next years. According to Navigant Research, the micro grid market will increase from $4.3 billion to $19.9 billion in 2020.

Battery supplier Highpower also manufactures consumer-oriented chargers for e-bikes as well as lithium and nickel-metal hydride-based batteries.

China has given a conditional approval for an electric vehicle (EV) nickel metal hydride battery joint venture (JV) between Toyota and Panasonic’s Primearth and two other Toyota units, Hunan Corun and Changhsu Sinogy.

The JV is called Corun PEVE Automotive Battery Co. and it aims to focus on the production of nickel-metal hydride batteries for hybrid cars.