SK Ecoplant completes battery recycling plant in China

South Korea’s SK Ecoplant announced on Wednesday that it completed a battery recycling plant in the Yancheng Economic and Technological Development Zone in Jiangsu Province, China.

The completion is the first part of a two-phase project undertaken by SK Ecoplant's Nanjing corporation and Z-Cycle, a joint venture (JV) specializing in recycling waste batteries in China.

Z-Cycle was established in 2019 by TES-AMM, SK Ecoplant's recycling subsidiary, and Zhong-Yi, a Chinese new energy business investment firm. The JV is one of the 15 companies in China capable of both reusing (sequential) and recycling (regenerative) waste batteries.

This plant covers an area of 8,000 square meters and can produce 2,000 tons of black mass annually.

An equally-sized phase 2 pre-processing plant is currently under construction nearby, and upon completion in late 2024, it will enable the production of a total of 4,000 tons of black mass annually.

Black mass refers to electronic waste consisting of shredded end-of-life battery cells. It contains high amounts of critical battery materials, like lithium, manganese, cobalt, and nickel.

Jiangsu Province is one of the key hubs of the global electric vehicle (EV) battery industry. According to SNE Research in 2022, it houses over 10 battery manufacturers of EV, including the world's second-largest by market share BYD.

SK Ecoplant intends to use this waste battery recycling plant in Jiangsu Province as a strategic base to secure feedstock volumes including waste batteries and scrap.

Write to In-Hyeok Lee at twopeople@hankyung.com