Chinese Battery Firm CALB to Set Up European Factory

Chinese battery manufacturer CALB announced on November 3 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with a subsidiary of the Portuguese Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade (AICEP). The company initially plans to purchase land use rights in Portugal, then set up a world-leading zero-carbon factory featuring intelligent and automated production.

The project is being planned at an industrial zone near the Ports of Sines, one of the hubs of European logistics. The port is the second largest deep-water port in Europe that can operate 24 hours a day. It is also the only port in Portugal that can dock the largest container ship in the world. At the same time, it has the largest railway freight platform in the country, operating more than 5,000 container trains to and from inland Europe every year, with outstanding location advantages.

Within China, CALB has set up battery industry bases in many cities such as Changzhou, Luoyang, and Chengdu, with a planned production capacity of over 410GWh. When the Portuguese base is completed, its production and supply capacity will increase significantly.

Meanwhile, CALB has reached cooperation with major Chinese car companies such as GAC Group, Changan Automobile and XPeng Motors. This year, it has also become a supplier of Smart pure electric vehicles under Mercedes-Benz. With Chinese car brands expanding overseas and advancing relationships of foreign automakers within China, CALB’s global bases will play an important role.

On October 6, CALB was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, during which time it stated that the layout of European industrial bases is another important measure for the company to accelerate its globalization strategy.

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According to the installed capacity data of Chinese battery firms in September 2022 released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, CALB ranks third with 6.16%, second only to CATL (47.80%) and BYD (22.44%).

Many Chinese battery companies have started to build factories overseas, including CATL, Gotion Hi-Tech, SVOLT and others. In order to meet supply needs, material and equipment enterprises in the field of lithium battery supply chain are also seeking overseas bases, and more than 10 lithium battery companies plan to issue GDRs (global depository receipts) to explore overseas markets.