Ronbay Announces its Global Development Strategy to Implement a Project of 40,000-Ton-per-annum High-nickel Ternary Cathode and 20,000-Ton-per-annum Lithium Ferromanganese Phosphate in Korea

BEIJING, Aug. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — On August 18, 2023 local time, Ronbay, a global leading cathode material company founded by its current chairman Bai Houshan with a membership of many Chinese and Korean scientists, held a global development strategy conference in Seoul, South Korea. It also held a commencement ceremony of the project of 40,000-ton-per-annum high-nickel ternary cathode and 20,000-ton-per-annum lithium ferromanganese phosphate (LMFP) cathode in Chungju, South Korea on the same day.

In September 2014, Ronbay was co-founded by Bai Houshan and Liu Xianglie, experts in lithium battery industry from China and South Korea respectively. With the advantage of being based in China and South Korea, the global powerhouses of power battery, the company has rapidly developed into one of the largest leading cathode material manufacturer in the world.

From 2021 to 2022, the market share of Ronbay’s high-nickel ternary cathode materials ranked first in the world. With a product line including high-nickel ternary, sodium, and LMFP cathode materials, it has expanded its production capacity of cathode materials up to 250,000 tons by the end of 2022.

According to the huge investment plan for building factories around the globe announced by Ronbay this time, by the end of 2025, it will build a capacity of 380,000 tons of ternary cathode materials worldwide, of which 230,000 tons and 100,000 tons of ternary cathode materials will be produced in China and South Korea respectively; In addition to building a capacity of 500,000 tons of ternary cathode materials in China and 200,000 tons of ternary cathode materials in South Korea, it plans to build a capacity of 150,000 tons of ternary cathode materials in Europe and North America respectively by the end of 2030.

Meanwhile, Ronbay plans to build a capacity of 60,000 tons of sodium electric materials in China by the end of 2025, and further increase it to 500,000 tons in China, Europe and North America by the end of 2030; It also plans to increase its capacity of phosphate materials to 300,000 tons in China, 60,000 tons in South Korea, and 100,000 tons in Europe and North America respectively by the end of 2030.

At present, many international automotive companies have chosen the technical route of high-nickel power battery, which leads to strong demand for high-nickel cathode materials. Ronbay has previously built a 20,000-ton-per-annum high-nickel ternary cathode production base in South Korea. Since the first quarter of this year, the base has been successfully put into production, and has received a number of global users to visit the factories and test the production line in succession. This has resulted in batch shipment of 100-ton ternary cathode materials. The capacity of 40,000-ton-per-annum high-nickel cathode to be built this time will cover not only South Korea, but also potential markets such as Japan, Europe and North America.

As LMFP is increasingly widely used all over the world, Ronbay is the first to stably deliver large quantity of lithium ferromanganese products in Chinese market. The project of 20,000-ton-per-annum LMFP cathode commenced this time is the first large-scale lithium ferromanganese factory operated by Chinese cathode material enterprises outside China.

Ronbay believes that it will greatly enhance its competitiveness in the local and global markets through the factories in Korea, because it is competitive in cost-performance in many aspects with the advantage of China’s complete industrial chain, it has a variety of product lines including high-nickel, LMFP and sodium cathode materials, of which LMFP has a great potential to expand the market worldwide, and it has established a comprehensive three-dimensional industrial chain ranging from cathode materials to precursors and refining recovery in Korea.

Today, all countries around the world have successively issued laws to lay down strict requirement on the key raw materials of batteries, and the global new energy industry chain is increasingly regionalized and localized. At present, the products produced by Ronbay’s Korea-based factories can be sold to the North American market. With the completion of more overseas localized factories, Ronbay’s cathode materials will fully cover the major global new energy vehicle markets such as China, the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea.