JSMC announced in early February that it will be raising its production of lithium carbonate. Therefore, it will set up a lithium carbonate project in Gao’an, a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Yichun in China’s Jiangxi Province. The annual production capacity of the project is set at 30,000 tons, and the planned total investment is capped at RMB 650 million.
JSMC said its lithium carbonate has been in high demand in recent years thanks to the rapid market growth of new energy vehicles and energy storage equipment. In fact, the company has not been able to meet all of its customers’ demand for some time. Gao’an provides a sufficient tract of land for accommodating the equipment used in processing lithium brine and high-temperature acid processing (or roasting). At the same time, local conditions will allow JSMC to meet the energy consumption standard imposed by the relevant regulatory authority. All in all, the proposed project will be able to supply lithium carbonate at a high efficiency and a relatively low cost.
The project will be set up within the Jiantao industrial base (park) of the city. The project will comprise a production line that encompasses all the key processing sections (e.g., impurity removal, mixing, evaporation, deposition, drying, and packaging) as well as the related facility buildings. Construction will begin within six months after the municipal government has formally allocated the land to JSMC. The project is expected to be completed within one year after the land grant.
JSMC also stated that the decision to land a project in Gao’an is based on assessments of its current overall production capacity, the amount of customers’ demand, and the growth trajectory of the Li-ion battery market. Furthermore, Yichun is the recognized as the lithium capital of Asia. Therefore, expanding the company’s existing lithium business operation there aligns with the company’s growth strategy over the medium to long term and further contributes to the city’s development. Once up and running, the project will add 30,000 tons to the company’s annual production capacity.
JSMC was established in 1995 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2007. The company started off as a provider of electric machinery, but its core businesses now include lepidolite mining, ore sorting, lithium carbonate, lithium salts, and related processing works. Its main lithium business operation is located in Yichun, where there is a large reserve of lithium ores.
Within the vicinity of Yichun, JSMC has the rights to mine lithium porcelain stones for two sites and prospecting rights for five sites. The amount of lithium resources that JSMC now owns or controls comes to more than 100 million tons. This figure includes known reserves and puts the company ahead of other domestic lithium suppliers.
In terms of capacity expansions, JSMC has been accelerating its efforts since 2022 and has numerous projects under development. On April 7, 2022, the company announced that its subsidiary Jiangte Mining will set up a project for sorting lithium ores and manufacturing lithium salts. The project site is in a major industrial park within Jiangxi’ Yifeng County (that is also within the administration of Yichun). The total investment in the project has reached around RMB 2 billion. In terms of production capacity, the project is designed to have 3 million tons for ore sorting and 20,000 tons for lithium salts.
Then, on August 17, 2022, JSMC revealed that its wholly-owned subsidiary Yin Li New Energy will upgrade the first phase of its lepidolite processing project. The reason for the upgrade is to improve the linkages among its prospecting, mining, and sorting sections of its lithium business operation. Smoothing out the production flow can lower production-related costs. The spending on the upgrade is estimated at RMB 128 million.
At the start of 2023, JSMC and precision machinery provider Fulin inked an investment promotion agreement. They will form a joint venture located in Yifeng County for the development of a lithium salt project. The planned investment in the joint venture and the project totals RMB 500 million. The annual production capacity of the project will be at least 50,000 tons.
In terms of performance, JSMC has seen strong sales for its lithium carbonate and lithium salts due to the rapid growth of the market for new energy solutions. This year, the market environment is expected to remain healthy, and the demand from the downstream sections of the supply chain will likely keep climbing. Furthermore, prices of JSMC’s lithium carbonate products have registered significant hikes from last year. Looking at its financial results for 2022, JSMC estimates that its profit attributable to the parent company reached RMB 2.25-2.55 billion, showing a massive year-on-year growth rate of 483.25-561.02%.
This article is a translation of a Chinese article posted by TrendForce. It contains information that is either sourced from other news outlets or accessible in the public domain. Some Chinese names are transcribed into English using Hanyu Pinyin.