Recently, the relevant website has made public the approval opinions on the environmental impact assessment documents for two projects of Wanhua Chemical.

One is the 4GWh large cylindrical energy storage battery project of Yantai Lihua Power Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lihua Power"). This project has been previously announced, and it is resubmitted for approval due to significant changes in some production processes and pollution control facilities. The total investment is 100000 million yuan, with an annual production plan of 50 million 46120-type cylindrical batteries, using the 46120 cell as the representative product, each cell being 25Ah, with a nominal voltage of 3.2V, corresponding to an energy of 80Wh.

The project is the first phase of the LiHua Power 25GWh large cylindrical energy storage battery project, with a total investment of 10 billion yuan. It started construction in February last year and is expected to start production in June 2025.

Another one is the project of Wanhua Chemical investing 38.18 million yuan to build a research and development line for lithium iron phosphate, sodium poly-anion, and new lithium iron phosphate cathode materials using existing factory buildings.

In terms of lithium iron phosphate materials, the company's capacity is across two major bases. (1) Haiyang Battery Materials Industrial Park: with a total investment of 16.8 billion yuan, covering an area of 1,850 mu, it plans to put into operation a 100,000-ton production line in June 2026, and upon full completion in 2032, will form a capacity of 500,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate and 300,000 tons of artificial graphite anode material. (2) Meishan Base: the first phase with an annual output of 50,000 tons out of a total 100,000 tons is planned to be put into operation in May 2025, reaching a total capacity of 250,000 tons by 2026.

The company's third-generation products have already been mass-produced, and the fourth generation (with higher compaction density) has passed customer validation. The Haiyang Industrial Park will focus on developing the fourth and fifth generation products. Increasing the compaction density of lithium iron phosphate, with tightly arranged particles optimizing the transmission paths for electrons and lithium ions, improves charging and discharging efficiency and rate performance, which is one of the key technologies for current fast-charging demands.

In terms of sodium polyanion materials, due to their low cost and long cycle performance, as well as their significant safety, low-temperature, and high-rate performance, they are expected to become the mainstream technology route in the energy storage market. Currently, Ronbay, Dangsheng, Gana Energy, Ina, Puna, Dongneng Sodium Power, Huana, Sodium Creation, Xingrong Energy, Jin Gong Energy, Ennaj, Wuhan Sodium New Materials, and others are all laying out polyanion materials. Chilwee Group, Veken Technology, and Hithium Energy Storage all released new polyanion battery products last year.