Two Japanese companies, Ube Industries and Mitsubishi Chemical, have agreed to combine their electrolyte businesses in China in a 50:50 joint venture. The deal aimed at enhancing technology and improving costs will take effect from April 2017 if approved by state authorities in China and other relevant countries. Ube and Mitsubishi said they may later consider extending the business, which supplies the lithium-ion batteries market, to other countries.

Ube Industries manufactures electrolytes at its Sakai plant n Osaka Prefecture, Japan, and at a plant located in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, China. Annual production capacity totals 10,000 t/y in Japan and 5,000 t/y in China. Mitsubishi’s production facilities are located at Yokkaichi in Mie Prefecture, Japan, Stockton-on-Tees, UK,  Memphis, Tennessee, USA, and Changshu, Jiangsu, China. The company’s Japanese output runs to 13,500 t/y, with 10,000 t/y produced in the UK, US and China.

Driven by government subsidies, the market for lithium-ion batteries used in automobiles is growing rapidly in China, Demand for battery materials including electrolytes is also sharply increasing, amid an increasingly competitive market, the future joint venture partners said.