NIPPON SHOKUBAI CO., LTD. (Headquarters: Osaka, Japan, President: Kazuhiro Noda, hereinafter \u201cNippon Shokubai\u201d) aims to expand our LiFSI* business in China, the biggest market of lithium-ion batteries (hereinafter \u201cLIB\u201d). We hereby announce that, as part of this business expansion, we have reached agreement on investment in Hunan Fluopont New Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter \u201cHunan Fluopont\u201d), a subsidiary of Shenzhen CAPCHEM Technology Co. Ltd. (hereinafter \u201cCapchem\u201d), who is currently making efforts to establish production facilities to enter LiFSI business.
*Lithium bis (fluorosulfonyl) imide (Product name: IONEL), a lithium salt as the advanced electrolyte which was commercialized first in the world by Nippon Shokubai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a rising awareness of environmental issues in recent years, there is a high demand for electric vehicle (EV), which is an industry-leading product of energy-saving and low-pollution next-generation vehicles, and this has led to the rapid expansion of the LIB market for EV. Because using LiFSI as an electrolyte in LIB for EV significantly improves the battery\u2019s cyclic and rate performance as well as storing stability over a wide temperature range from low to high temperatures, LiFSI has been adapted not only as an additive, but also as a main ingredient of the electrolyte. As this has led to a surge in LiFSI demand particularly in Asia and Europe, early business expansion to China, the world\u2019s biggest LIB market for vehicles has been a key for us to make a big leap in our IONEL business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under these circumstances, in order to acquire high-profile customers and early establish a cost-competitive manufacturing and sales structure in China with the largest LIB demand, we have decided to form an alliance with Capchem, a major electrolyte solution manufacturer, and Toyota Tsusho Corporation (Headquarters: Nagoya, Japan, President: Ichiro Kashitani, hereinafter \u201cToyota Tsusho\u201d), who is Toyota Group\u2019s general trading company. The investment will be made by Toyota Tsusho (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter \u201cToyotsu Shanghai\u201d). This will allow us to combine our state-of-the-art LiFSI production technologies, quality control capability, and intellectual properties with Hunan Fluopont\u2019s cost-competitiveness, location, material procurement capability, production system, and existing technologies, and Capchem\u2019s LiFSI purchasing capability supported by their top-level supply capacity of electrolyte solutions, as well as Toyota Tsusho\u2019s world-wide sales network encompassing China. Through this alliance, we will aim to accelerate our IONEL business in the electrolyte market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LiFSI is known as a difficult substance to purify to a high degree, which is only achieved by advanced know-how for its production and quality management. Using our unique production technology that we have nurtured over the years, in 2013, we succeeded in the development of an industrial production process of highly-pure LiFSI with few solvents and by-products, exhibiting stable electrochemical properties, for the first time in the world. Our product has been adopted and certified as the electrolyte by many LIB manufacturers inside and outside Japan with a wide variety of applications including vehicle, consumer-use, and stationary batteries. Nippon Shokubai and Toyotsu Shanghai will invest in the following company.
(For details of LiFSI, please refer to our website: https:\/\/www.shokubai.co.jp\/en\/lp\/ionel\/<\/a> )
Capchem is the world\u2019s second largest manufacturer of electrolyte solution for LIB with five production sites in China, and has a track record of providing its products to major LIB manufacturers. Their business includes not only manufacturing of electrolyte solution, but also in-house material production of solvent, electrolyte, additive, which enables them to offer electrolyte solution with price competitiveness and high quality.
Toyota Tsusho is looking to expand their LiFSI sales beyond China to electrolyte solution manufactures in Japan, Asia, and Europe to meet the surging demand in the electrolyte solution and electrolyte markets.
Hunan Fluopont started its production in the second half of FY2022 with the first unit (production capacity 1,200t\/y). It is planned to be expanded in stages to satisfy the rapidly increasing market demand, aiming to have annual production capacity of 12,000 ton\/y in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n3. Investment overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
(1) Company name
\u3000\u3000Hunan Fluopont New Materials Co., Ltd.
(2) Location
\u3000\u3000Shigu District, Hengyang, Hunan, China
(3) Amount invested (third-party allocation of shares)
\u3000\u3000Nippon Shokubai: 201,769,912 RMB (4.04 billion JPY)
\u3000\u3000Toyotsu Shanghai: 29,203,539 renminbi (580 million JPY)
\u3000\u3000<Assumed exchange rate: 20 JPY\/RMB >
(4) Shareholders
\u3000\u3000Capchem: 51.19%
\u3000\u3000Nippon Shokubai: 38.0%
\u3000\u3000Toyotsu Shanghai: 5.5%
\u3000\u3000Changsha ShinLian Huayuan Alternative Energy Partnership Enterprise (shareholding association by executive employees of Hunan Fluopont): 5.31%
(5) Representative
\u3000\u3000Shu Ping Ai
(6) Businesses
\u3000\u3000Manufacturing and sales of electrolyte LiFSI for LIB
(7) Production capacity
\u3000\u3000Current: 1,200t\/ year in the second half of FY2022
\u3000\u3000Plan: 12,000t\/ year in FY2025<\/p>\n\n\n\nRelated information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Profile of Shenzhen CAPCHEM Technology Co. Ltd.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n