If we could turn back the clock 15 years ago, the cities that are now leading in lithium battery development, such as Ningde, Changzhou, Yibin, Zaozhuang, and so on, would definitely call Tianjin “big brother”. If you want to have a quick understanding of Tianjin’s lithium battery industry, you must patiently watch this content.
Tianjin was absolutely the top stream of China’s lithium battery industry at that time. It has the most professional battery research institute in China, with more than 1,500 people studying batteries. Everything from what flies in the sky, runs on the ground, to what swims in the water… basically, all types of batteries are studied here.
China’s first 18650 battery was also developed here. The China Industrial Physics Power Supply Association is affiliated here, and the CIBF hosted by this association is held once every two years and is the world’s largest battery exhibition. It is said that many small battery factory owners from the south would dig for talent at the door of the battery research institute located in Liqizhuang, and with some formulas and processes, they would go to the south to make a fortune.
Tianjin has the most automated lithium battery manufacturing company in China at that time – Tianjin Lishen Battery. At that time, there were two giants in the lithium battery industry, BYD in the south and Lishen in the north. BYD supplied Nokia, and Lishen supplied Motorola and Samsung.
Lishen uses an automated assembly line, and at that time, a single winding machine was as high as 3 million RMB, and Lishen had dozens of them. BYD uses manual winding, so at that time, it was compared that the product quality and consistency of Lishen were the best, and BYD’s price was cheap.
At that time, raw material suppliers for lithium batteries, whoever could supply Lishen, basically to other small battery factories, you don’t need to test it. Lishen Battery has established a joint venture with an American company as early as 2010, Lishen Miles, the American side invests money, the Chinese side invests technology, this should be the first lithium battery company in China to use technology as a share.
In addition to Lishen Battery, Tianjin also has lithium battery companies such as Jiewei Power, Zhongju Battery, Tianjin B&K, etc. Let me mention Zhongju Battery here, this company may not be known to many people now, but it was an enterprise invested by Li Ka-shing at that time.
Driven by these battery factories, Tianjin’s lithium battery materials are also leading the country, with positive poles including cobalt acid lithium, ternary including Tianjin B&M, Tianjin Mengguli; lithium iron phosphate includes Tianjin Stelan; negative poles include Tianjin Bettery; electrolyte – Tianjin Jinniu. Tianjin Jinniu is the first company in China to study liquid lithium salt; separator includes Donggao. You see, the main materials of lithium batteries are basically complete, this series of industrial support, which was quite awesome at the time.
It is precisely because of such dazzling performance of Tianjin’s lithium battery that the lithium battery industry has once become a business card for our Tianjin. When Chairman Jiang and Chairman Hu visited Tianjin, they all had to see Tianjin’s lithium battery, and Tianjin’s battery factories are also regular customers on the global lithium battery ranking. Global lithium battery suppliers, whether material or equipment, must go to Tianjin if they want to do lithium battery business.