BEIJING Easpring Material Technology Co. is looking for additional nickel and cobalt offtake agreements to sustain growth in cathode materials production for electric vehicle batteries, its general manager said yesterday.

“We are also looking for other partners to ensure the supply of nickel and cobalt,” Li Jianzhong said at a business forum in Shanghai, when asked if the firm had an appetite for more supply beyond the offtake deal it signed with Australia’s Clean Teq Holdings Ltd. last year.

In August 2017, Beijing Easpring signed a five-year offtake agreement with Clean Teq for around 20 percent of cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate output from its Syerston project in Australia.

Both nickel and cobalt are key ingredients in electric vehicle batteries. The world’s biggest miners are stepping up efforts to meet demand for battery materials.

Beijing Easpring, which lists shares on the growth board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, is also looking to source material from Africa, including top cobalt producer the Democratic Republic of Congo, as Australian offtake alone will not be enough, Li said.

Beijing Easpring expects China’s cobalt demand to grow about 9 percent from last year to 680,000 tons in 2018, Li said in a presentation.

(SD-Agencies)