Ganfeng Lithium Group has secured a long-term contract for supplying lithium hydroxide to Tesla through its subsidiary GFL International. The signing of the deal was announced by Ganfeng at the start of November and reported by various news agencies including Reuters and Bloomberg. Under the agreement, the Chinese lithium material supplier will provide battery-related materials to the US electric car maker from 2022 to 2024. The quantity and value of the contract is still being discussed, according a filing made by Ganfeng with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
News outlets also brought up the fact that Ganfeng already inked a three-year supply agreement with Tesla for lithium hydroxide in 2018. That deal covered the period from 2018 to 2020 and had a three-year extension provision. Ganfeng’s filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange also noted that for the 2018-2020 contract, the supplier allocated around 20% of its production capacity for lithium hydroxide to meet the demand from the electric car maker.
In response to the rapid growth of the electric car market, Ganfeng has been aggressively expanding its processing capacity for various battery-related materials at home and acquiring sources of natural lithium deposits abroad. Website Pandaily reported on October 21 that Ganfeng through its other subsidiary Ganfeng Lithium Netherlands bought out Litio Minera Argentina. With the deal, Ganfeng now indirectly controls the Mariana Project, which is located in Argentina and recognized as one of the world’s largest sources of lithium brine.