China and, by extension, the world’s largest battery maker, CATL, is lodging its filings with regulators to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Reuters says. The company aims to raise some 5 billion dollars (€4.82 billion). It will be CATL’s secondary listing, as it has been on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange since June 11th, 2018.
According to the Dialogic platform, the money will be the largest Hong Kong listing in four years. It will be used for a 7.3 billion-euro battery plant in Hungary. The latest figures show that CATL continued to be the world’s largest battery manufacturer in 2024, with a 37.9 percent share, compared to 36.6 percent in 2023.
Way ahead of the competition
CATL is still way ahead of the number two battery maker, another Chinese giant, BYD, which accounted for 17.2% market share in 2024. South Korean LG Energy Solutions, ranks third with 10.8%. China’s CALB was fourth with a 4.4 percent share, and South Korea’s SK On was fifth with about 4.4 percent.
BYD, conversely, has become China’s biggest electric carmaker and challenges Tesla to be the world’s number one in fully electric car sales. CATL builds no cars itself but develops so-called ‘skateboards,’ complete with batteries and drivetrains, for EVs that carmakers can use as the base for their EVs.
CATL says its EV batteries were used in about 17 million vehicles, representing one in every three EVs worldwide. It has been number one in the global power battery market share for eight consecutive years and No. 1 in the energy storage battery market for three years.
Three factories in Europe
It has 13 battery factories worldwide, two of which are in Europe today. In December 2024, CATL joined forces with Stellantis Group to build a new factory at Stellantis’ Zaragoza site in Spain to produce low-cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. This will be CATL’s third battery factory in Europe.
In December 2022, CATL started serial production at its new lithium-ion battery cell plant, CATT, in Thuringia, Germany. It was CATL’s first operational battery factory outside of China, with an initial manufacturing capacity estimated at 8 Gigawatt hours per year that will be beefed up to 14 GWh.
Big order for BMW
The European factory’s construction was announced in 2018 after CATL reeled in a significant order from BMW for the following years. Meanwhile, the list of European clients is extended with names like Volkswagen, Daimler, Volvo, and Bosch. And one of CATL’s most prominent clients is still American Tesla (in China).
At the same time, the Chinese are finishing a second 100 GWh battery plant in Debrecen in the eastern part of Hungary. The foundation stone was laid in April 2023, with serial operations testing starting in 2024 and production beginning in 2025.
Debrecen, Hungary, is also where BMW is building the first EVs from the ‘Neue Klasse’ series. Also, Mercedes-Benz is one of the big consumers of battery cells and modules produced there.
Comments
Ready to join the conversation?
You must be an active subscriber to leave a comment.
Subscribe Today