Martin Li

    A LITHIUM battery membrane production base began trial production yesterday in Guangming New Zone, marking an end to China’s reliance on foreign enterprises in supplying the costly components.

    With four production lines, the base has a yearly production capacity of 60 million square meters of lithium battery membranes, widely used in mobile phones, Bluetooth devices, walkie-talkies and remote control equipment.

    “While new energy has been made a strategic emerging industry in China, the country still lags behind foreign countries in many core technologies in the field of new energy,” said Chen Jian, president of Shenzhen Senior Technology Material Co. (SSTM), which built the production base.

    “The opening of the production base will end the current monopoly of foreign enterprises in supplying lithium battery membranes,” he said.

    Chen said more than 95 percent of China’s membranes are imported from foreign countries such as the United States and Japan at high cost.

    Another eight production lines will be completed before 2013, giving the base a yearly production capacity of 200 million square meters of membranes, Chen said.

    One of the leading private technology enterprises in Shenzhen, SSTM has cooperated with Sichuan University in researching and developing new-energy technologies to be used by leading domestic battery enterprises such as Tianjin Lishen, China Aviation and Zhejiang Zhenlong Battery Co.

    SSTM had its lithium battery membranes tested by NEC in Japan and were shown to give good performance, a representative from NEC’s energy department said.

    The company will step up research and development of lithium battery membranes for vehicle and computer applications.

    Technologies firms like BYD and Sky Energy already use SSTM’s products.