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Shares of Enpack Packaging surged following the company’s announcement of plans to establish joint research and development laboratories in China with South Korean battery giant LG Chem. This move aims to fast-track the company’s expansion into the innovative lithium battery materials sector.
At midday in Shenzhen, Enpack Packaging’s stock increased by 3.3%, trading at CNY17.82 (approximately USD2.55), after earlier climbing as much as 6.4%.
The company’s lithium battery material business subsidiary signed an agreement with LG Chem’s R&D division in China to create collaborative labs focused on developing next-generation composite current collectors for lithium batteries and their specific polymer film materials. The Guangdong-based parent company revealed this yesterday.
The new laboratories will be situated at Yinglian’s manufacturing facility in Gaoyou and LG Chem’s R&D hub in Wuxi. Both locations are in eastern Jiangsu province, roughly 125 miles (200 kilometers) apart.
These labs will leverage LG Chem’s expertise in polymer film materials alongside Yinglian’s advanced production technology and manufacturing capabilities for composite current collector products. The joint effort will focus on accelerating research, development, and large-scale application of high-performance composite current collectors.
Current collectors play a critical role in batteries by serving as the conductive framework that connects active materials in the electrodes to external circuits. They significantly influence the performance, safety, and stability of lithium batteries.
Traditional lithium battery current collectors use copper foil for the anode and aluminum foil for the cathode. In contrast, composite current collectors feature a layered structure with a polymer base film sandwiched between ultra-thin metal conductive layers. Compared to conventional designs, these composite collectors can substantially enhance safety and energy density, reduce weight, and lower manufacturing costs.
In 2023, Enpack Packaging entered the lithium battery composite current collector market by investing in a plant located in Gaoyou through its subsidiary Yinglian. The facility boasts an annual capacity of 100 million square meters of composite aluminum foil and 500 million square meters of composite copper foil. The plant was completed last year, with some production lines already operational.
Yinglian’s composite aluminum and copper foil products from Gaoyou have undergone testing and received customer feedback from downstream battery manufacturers, including those specializing in power, consumer, and energy storage batteries. The subsidiary has also begun collaborating closely with several leading clients to advance this technology.
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