In a written reply to questions, CATL said its investments “guarantee the stability of raw material supply, and avoid sharp price fluctuations.”ĬATL benefited greatly from the government’s drive to get automakers in China to use only locally made batteries. In 2015, it unveiled the Made in China 2025 plan, a guide to achieving independence in major industries of the future, including electric cars, in a decade. CATL locked in contracts for the most lithium-rich deposits, people familiar with the company said. The government wanted development in the country’s poorer western regions. Zeng needed: dried-out salt lake beds with thick underground brine laden with lithium. Zeng had started a subsidiary in western China’s Qinghai Province. Zeng has also secured raw materials close to home.Ĭorporate records show that within a year of setting up CATL, Mr. This year, CATL acquired a quarter of the Kisanfu cobalt reserve, one of the world’s richest, in Congo for $137.5 million. Chinese firms have rushed to secure cobalt in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where huge deposits were once mined by an American company. Then, Beijing helped the company soar.ĬATL’s batteries require ready supplies of lithium and cobalt. For gifts during holidays, CATL sends lychee and loquat fruit grown on Ningde’s outskirts.īeijing’s rules helped CATL emerge as an independent company. Zeng, 53, has built a senior management team of longtime employees, many of whom grew up in Ningde. The municipal government has locked down access to a wide array of documents, particularly from the early days of CATL. Its towering headquarters, shaped like an oversize lithium battery, and several of its biggest factories are in his hometown, Ningde, a former fishing village and military base in southeastern China. ![]() Its founder and chairman, Robin Zeng, is one of the wealthiest men in Asia, with a fortune of about $60 billion.
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