According to Reuters, three people familiar with the matter revealed that Russian metal producer Nornickel is negotiating with a number of Chinese battery companies to build joint ventures in China, planning to use Russian semi-finished products to produce nickel materials.
Photo source: Nornickel.
It is reported that CNGR Advanced Materials and Brunp Recycling, a subsidiary of Ningde Times, are among the companies approached by Nornickel.
However, Ningde Times denied the above report, but Zhongwei New Materials has not yet responded.
Nornickel is trying to shift large quantities of production from Russia to consumer China to circumvent Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
If the project to build a nickel plant in China progresses smoothly, this will be the third major project launched by Nori Nickel this year.
The company is also in talks to transfer its copper smelting operations to China and plans to build a platinum group metal refinery in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
One of the people familiar with the matter said that southern China’s Hunan Province is regarded as the main site for the nickel plant because many Chinese battery industry companies are located in the province, but Nuoci has not yet made a final decision.
Another person familiar with the matter said that Noricel’s nickel plant in China will use Russian nickel matte, a semi-finished product, to produce nickel sulfate needed to make electric vehicle batteries.
Noro Nickel plans to supply 50,000 tons of nickel to the plant every year, accounting for about a quarter of the company’s current annual production.
The company produced 209,000 tons of nickel in 2023, accounting for 6% of global nickel production.
, Nori Nickel is a company that mainly produces refined nickel.
In March, the company said it would seek to integrate its nickel products into the global battery industry and realign sales to mitigate the impact of Western sanctions on its business.
The company did not disclose further details at the time.
, Before Russia was subject to Western sanctions in 2022, Nori mainly sold refined products produced in Russia.
However, sanctions on Russia have prompted some Western producers to avoid Russian metals, and the impact of payment complications has prompted Nori to try to move the final stages of its production outside Russia.
, Two people familiar with the matter said that Chinese companies are worried about the risks posed by sanctions and may be reluctant to cooperate with Nocel because in global export markets, Western buyers may refuse to accept Chinese companies ‘products if they have direct links to Russia.
In addition, the global nickel market is currently oversupplied.
It is expected that the output of nickel raw materials will reach 3.
55 million tons this year.
The nickel in China’s battery industry mainly comes from Indonesia, the world’s largest producer.
Indonesia’s nickel production accounts for 42% of the total global supply of nickel materials.
A person familiar with the matter said that production of Novi will provide a long-term stable source of raw materials for Chinese companies that do not have nickel deposits in Indonesia.
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