Chinese electric car battery company China Aviation Lithium Battery Technology (CALB) announced today that it has reached an agreement to establish a factory in Portugal.
In a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, CALB announced on Wednesday the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with a subsidiary of the Portuguese Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade (AICEP).
The agreement with AICEP Global Parques provides for the acquisition of “surface rights, with the aim of establishing a world-class, highly intelligent, automated and automated factory with zero CO2 emissions,” the company said.
CALB “has not yet signed a legally binding agreement”, so “the cooperation envisaged in the memorandum of understanding may or may not progress”.
The company also said the eventual installation of a factory in Portugal would be part of a strategy to create “industrial bases in Europe”.
In December 2021, CALB announced the signing of an agreement with the German consultancy Drees & Sommer to plan the first factory in Europe, which could produce batteries with a total capacity of 20 GWh per year.
According to the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, an industry association, CALB was the third largest Chinese manufacturer of batteries for electric cars in 2021.
Electric vehicle battery factory could be in Sines
The mayor of Sines said on Thursday that the electric car battery factory that China Aviation Lithium Battery Technology (CALB) plans to create in Portugal could be installed in the municipality of Sines, Setúbal.
“Sines is one of CALB’s privileged locations as we have all the conditions here, but it’s only the first intention,” Sines mayor Nuno Mascarenhas said in statements to the Lusa agency.
The mayor noted the competition that exists to bring in this type of project and said that “it will be good news” for Sines, if the project comes to fruition, as it is “a significant investment”, without compromising values. specify.
“In addition to port investments in submarine cables, petrochemicals, chemicals, we have other areas”, such as “the construction of a battery factory that could be very useful for Portugal in the future,” he emphasized.
In statements to Lusa, the mayor revealed that “the factory will cover an area of about 100 hectares”, but since aicep Global Parques “does not have those hectares available”, “a parallel work” is being carried out to install this unit in the industrial and logistics zone of Sines (ZILS).
“That’s why we worked for a few months to make available land managed by other entities within the ZILS urbanization plan, which would make this installation possible,” he explained.
According to the mayor, the Portuguese government, the municipality of Sines and aicep Global Parques are doing “a parallel work” to “transfer these lands to the management of aicep Global Parques as soon as possible”.
“From the moment the land can be handed over to the management of aicep Global Parques, there will be conditions to develop the project and sign the final agreements,” he noted.
For Nuno Mascarenhas, the installation of this plant in Sines will be positive “not only in terms of exports”, but also because it could guarantee the supply of lithium batteries to Autoeuropa, in Palmela.
“We must not forget that we have a car factory in Portugal, Autoeuropa, and who knows if one day these batteries can’t be used in the same cars” being built there, he underlined.
Asked about the amount of the investment and the jobs that could be created, the mayor chose not to go ahead with this information for the time being and send this announcement to the company when “the final contract is signed”.
The company also said the eventual installation of a factory in Portugal would be part of a strategy to create “industrial bases in Europe”.
Source: DN
