On the early morning of January 5th, construction commenced for the Lianyungang Lihai (Kai Shi) New Energy Battery Key Material Project in the Lianyungang Economic Development Zone, heralding the beginning of new project construction in Lianyungang for the year.

According to information available, this project is jointly invested and developed by Lianyungang Industrial Investment Group Lihai Chemical Co., Ltd., and Yantai Kaishi Industrial Co., Ltd., spanning an area of 761 mu (approximately 50.7 hectares), planned for construction in two phases with a total investment of 5 billion yuan. The first phase involves an investment of 3.617 billion yuan, covering a total construction area of about 230,000 square meters. It will have an annual output of 100,000 tons of ternary precursor, 60,000 tons of nickel sulfate, 30,000 tons of electrolytic nickel, 7,000 tons of electrolytic cobalt, 8,000 tons of manganese dioxide, and related products. Currently, the filing procedures for the first phase have been completed. The raw material pretreatment workshop of the first-phase project started construction at the end of December 2023. The entire project is scheduled to be completed and put into operation by 2025 in phases.

Once the first phase of the project reaches full production, it is expected to achieve annual sales of 19.2 billion yuan, generating a tax revenue of 560 million yuan. Upon the completion and full production of both phases, it will become the world's largest cobalt metal producer. As an individual project, it will also be China's second-largest nickel metal production base.