FEMTC Plans 2nd-Stage Capacity Expansion Project

Taipei, Aug. 30, 2011 (CENS)--Formosa Energy & Material Technology Co., Ltd. (FEMTC), a major supplier of lithium-iron-phosphorous oxide (cathode material) for lithium-ion batteries in Taiwan, recently reported having begun deliveries to a Chinese customer for 500 electric cars.

To meet new strong demand, FEMTC will invest over NT$1 billion (US$34.5 million) in a second-stage capacity expansion in Taiwan to double annual capacity to exceed 10,000 tons to become a leader globally.

Statistics compiled by Fuji Chimera Research Institute Inc. of Japan show this year's global lithium-ion battery material market is forecast to grow 598% to reach 34.9 billion Japanese yen, with the value to top 426.6 billion yen by 2015.

J.Y. Wang, FEMTC's chairperson, pointed out that increasingly more orders from makers of e-scooters, e-cars and e-buses on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been received. She says that FEMTC has begun shipping products to an electric-vehicle (EV) maker in China, while in Taiwan Yulon Group's e-scooters are shifted from original nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries to LiFePO4. In addition, Wang stressed, the cooperation and exchange with Chinese automakers Jianghuai Automobile Co.,Ltd. (JAC) and JAC-affiliated Anhui Ankai Automobile Co. has been heating up, which will generate new orders in the future.

Ankai now owns an 80% share in China's full-electric public bus, clean-energy bus, and national fifth-stage emission standard-compatible bus markets. The green-bus maker has been actively developing export sales to the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America.

FEMTC operates an 8,580-meter cathode-material factory in southern Taiwan's Changhwa with maximum monthly capacity of 400 tons, or total output of about 5,280 tons if including capacity at local partner Changes Ascending Enterprise Co., Ltd.

FEMTC is also cooperating with partners in Taiwan, South Korea and China to construct zero power-consumption houses in the three places, with each house requiring about 300 kgs of cathode materials for energy-storage.