Vietnamese, Thai firms lay plans for lithium factory

Thailand-headquartered Pan Asia Metals and Vietnam’s VinES Energy Solutions have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to conduct a feasibility study for a lithium conversion factory.

According to a release on Friday, the two sides will establish a team to conduct the study for a factory near the VinES battery plant in the central province of Ha Tinh, with an initial capacity of 20,000-25,000 tons per annum (tpa). Pan Asia Metals’ main role is to secure lithium concessions and lithium oxide concentrate to supply the project.

In November 2022, VinES Energy Solutions and China-based Gotion High-Tech started construction of their $275 million battery factory in Vietnam. Covering 14 hectares in Ha Tinh’s Vung Ang Economic Zone, the new factory is set to start production in the third quarter of 2023. The factory is designed to annually produce 30 million lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells.

Following successful completion of the feasibility study, the two businesses will potentially negotiate further terms for the collaboration.

Commenting on the deal, Pham Thuy Linh, VinES CEO, said: “Lithium remains one of the most important raw materials in the battery material supply chain. A potential lithium conversion factory near our existing operations in Vietnam could significantly enhance VinES's operational synergy and flexibility, strengthen our integrated supply chain, and ensure VinES’s comprehensive sustainable development.”

VinES Energy Solutions, a member of private Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup, has been expanding cooperation with foreign partners.

In April 2023, VinES signed cooperation agreements with Turkish company Altınay Elektromobilite; Li-Cycle, the largest lithium-ion battery recycler in North America; and StoreDot, an Israel-headquartered pioneer of battery solutions.

The cooperation with Altınay Elektromobilite aims to provide comprehensive energy storage solutions in the Turkish market.

In cooperation with Li-Cycle, the Canadian major will become VinES’s strategic and preferred recycling partner in 2024 for the latter’s Vietnamese-sourced battery materials. Li-Cycle's Spoke and Hub technologies use a combination of mechanical safe size reduction and hydrometallurgical resource recovery for lithium-ion battery recycling.

Per the agreement between VinES and StoreDot, the two firms will introduce extreme fast charging (XFC) battery solutions for the green mobility market, including smart electric vehicles manufactured by VinFast, also part of Vingroup. They will also jointly research, develop, and offer XFC battery cells in various forms in preparation for mass production and supply.

On Thursday, VinES and Marubeni Green Power Vietnam, a subsidiary of Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, entered into a strategic partnership to promote the adoption of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in the Southeast Asian nation. Under the agreement, Marubeni will jointly evaluate with VinES to, invest in, install and operate BESS at multiple business locations of Vingroup’s companies to provide energy saving solutions, load balancing, and more efficient power management.

The BESS could potentially be integrated with renewable energy systems to accelerate Vingroup’s transition to clean energy. Marubeni plans to develop tens of MWh BESS systems in the first phase and expects further capacity expansion in subsequent phases. VinES will be the manufacturer and solution provider of the BESS for Marubeni.