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Tesla Inc. has signed new long-term deals with two of its existing Chinese battery-materials suppliers, the latest move by automakers to secure supplies amid intensifying competition.

Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co. and CNGR Advanced Material Co. signed pricing agreements with the electric-vehicle giant for supplies until the middle of this decade, according to separate stock-exchange statements from the companies. The deals are for ternary precursor materials — chemical cocktails that are key to storing energy in lithium-ion batteries.

The announcements come as major automakers look to scoop up battery metals in the face of a looming shortage. General Motors Co. unveiled deals to buy inputs ranging from lithium to cathode materials last week, shortly after Ford Motor Co. revealed a list of suppliers with raw materials including Argentinean lithium and Indonesian nickel.

Huayou Cobalt will supply the materials to Tesla from July 1, 2022 to the end of 2025. The miner said the prices of the products will be subject to market prices for nickel, cobalt and manganese, as well as refining fees. CNGR will supply the EV automaker between 2023 and 2025.

Shares of Huayou Cobalt and CNGR jumped more than 9% each on Monday morning.

The transition to cleaner energy is boosting demand for battery ingredients, while supply has been hampered by Covid-related logistical woes and a lack of investment. That’s pushing up the prices of the raw materials and is denting profitability for some carmakers.

Both Huayou and CNGR were among a list of direct suppliers named by Tesla in its 2021 annual impact report. CNGR said in its statement that it supplied Tesla from 2020 until this year.

China’s CNGR Advanced Material Co Ltd will invest in three new projects in Indonesia to produce nickel matte, aiming to increase annual capacity by 120,000 tons to meet increasing demand for the product used in making electric car batteries.

In a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the battery material maker said on Wednesday that three of its Hong Kong units signed agreements with a Singapore-based Rigqueza International Pte Ltd to jointly invest in the three projects in Weda Bay industrial park in North Maluku.

Each involves investment of US$420 million and aims to produce nickel matte with 40,000 tons of nickel content per year via four production lines, the filing said.

Nickel matte is an intermediate product that can be processed into battery-grade nickel. CNGR had already invested in two nickel matte projects with Rigqueza last year in Sulawesi, with total annual capacity of 60,000 tons. The company also reached agreement with nickel giant Tsingshan Holding Group, which will supply it with 40,000 tons of the product.

“Both parties are continuously optimistic about the nickel matte industry,” CNGR said in the statement, adding that the investments are expected to further secure company’s resources and lower the costs of producing battery materials. Registered in Singapore, Rigqueza will own a 30 percent stake in each of the three new projects, CNGR said.

The Chinese company did not disclose more information about its partner, but said Rigqueza’s main responsibilities included coordination with the Indonesian government, helping to secure local approvals and financing.

CNGR could not be contacted for further comment. Nickel prices on the London Metal Exchange doubled to a record level of over $100,000 a ton within an hour in March as Russia-Ukraine conflict fanned an already rallying market. They eased to around $26,365 per ton on Tuesday.

BENGALURU (REUTERS) – Chinese battery material maker CNGR Advanced Material and Singapore-based Rigqueza International have set up a joint venture in Indonesia to produce nickel matte, used to make chemicals for electric car batteries.

CNGR last month agreed to buy nickel matte – an intermediate product that can be processed into battery-grade nickel – from Tsingshan Holding Group. The surprise deal sent nickel prices plunging as the market sensed concerns of tight nickel supply could be overdone.

Now, Changsha-based CNGR is looking to produce matte itself in a US$243 million (S$325.5 million) smelting project in Tsingshan’s industrial park on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

The project will produce 30,000 tonnes of nickel matte a year, CNGR said on Thursday (April 8).

“Demand for ternary material nickel is accelerating,” CNGR said in a filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, noting a trend towards high-content nickel batteries with a longer lifespan.

CNGR will hold a 70 per cent stake in the joint venture, to be called ZhongTsing New Energy, according to the filing, with Rigqueza holding the remaining 30 per cent. Rigqueza is registered in Singapore, but it was not immediately clear if the company is related to Tsingshan.

The first US$81 million phase is set to produce 10,000 tonnes of matte on a nickel content basis, said the filing, which did not provide a targeted start-up date.

The venture is the latest in a number of Chinese-backed projects in top nickel miner Indonesia, which banned nickel ore exports from the start of 2020 as it sought to establish a fully integrated battery industry at home.

Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology plans to invest US$5 billion in a lithium battery plant in the South-east Asian country, Indonesian government officials have said.

JAKARTA — Chinese electric-vehicle battery material provider CNGR Advanced Material Co. is boosting output of a primary material to seize market share despite a bad year for the industry.

The move comes as the EV battery market faces challenges with high prices for raw material nickel and weaker sales for the EV industry in China, the world’s biggest EV battery producer.

“This year is a tough year, a suffering year for the EV market, for the whole supply chain. That’s why we want to expand … so we can lower the cost,” CNGR’s assistant manager, Xu Jie, told a nickel conference in Jakarta on Sept. 12.

CNGR is planning to almost double its capacity to 126,000 tons of EV battery precursor this year from 64,000 tons in 2018, and to 160,000 tons in 2020, Xu told the Asian Nickel conference.

CNGR’s precursor is a mixture of chemicals used to produce batteries for the EV sector. CNGR said it was the second-biggest precursor producer last year in China with 16 percent of the market, behind GEM with 23 percent market share.

“If we can provide high quality and cheaper products to downstream customers so that they can make huge order, that will keep us surviving,” he said.

The number of new energy vehicles sold fell for the second month in a row in August, after jumping almost 62 percent last year, after China cut NEV subsidies, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed.

NEVs include plug-in hybrids, battery-only electric vehicles and those powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

NEV sales, however, are expected to increase this year, albeit at a slower pace than in 2018, the association said.

“We still think and have a good faith in the nickel trend,” Xu said, expecting nickel consumption in the battery sector to increase to 12 percent of global nickel usage in 2025, from 4 percent as of last year.