“It is imperative to bring China’s extensive expertise and best practices to help guide investments to develop a regional lithium-ion battery manufacturing value chain that creates equitable clean-energy manufacturing jobs in the Belt and Road (B&R) countries while mitigating climate change impacts,” highlighted Prof. Seyed Komail Tayebi, President of Economic Cooperation Organisation Science Foundation (ECOSF) on Wednesday.
At the 6th Joint Training Programme entitled “Powering Belt and Road – Lithium-ion batteries” jointly hosted by Beijing Technology and Business University (BTBU) and ECOSF, the president further expressed his confidence that this training on lithium-ion batteries would strengthen the exchange and cooperation between the Chinese green enterprises and participating BRI countries to explore investment and business expansion opportunities in the areas of renewable energy development, cleaner mobility solutions and smart and resilient power grid operations.
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries today are poised to become the preferred choice for various applications across electric mobility, grid storage and consumer electronics. Lithium-ion batteries are a key technology for the BRI and ECO member countries to achieve net zero carbon emissions in transportation, industrial equipment and consumer electronics. And China has now been the world’s largest lithium battery consumer market for five consecutive years.
On the occasion, five experts from China and Pakistan gave lectures on the global industry chain of lithium batteries, the pattern of international competition, battery manufacturing, battery big data management and the market potential of lithium batteries in the BRI region.
Ms Aidong Xu, Vice Chairman of the Nickel & Cobalt Branch of the China Non-Ferrous Metal Industry Association, gave an overview and outlook of the global battery metals industry. She suggested that BRI countries strengthen exploration of battery minerals, such as lithium, continue industrial transfer and accelerate the pace of electrification.
Khalil Raza, Scientific Officer of ECOSF, explained that currently, most of the ECO Member States do not produce or manufacture primary lithium-ion cells, and the cost of importing lithium-ion batteries is particularly high. “Battery metal demand is set to rise substantially. The market size of LiB in Pakistan is expected to grow from 0.6 GWh worth US$0.6 billion in 2022 to 35 GWh worth US$10 billion. Localisation is the key to sustainable uptake of the EV market in Pakistan and other ECO countries. Achieving solid partnership with Chinese enterprises to build capacity in chemical refining in the ECO countries is the way forward.”
During the training, around 330 students and relevant industry representatives from BRI/ECO countries registered for this training and had practical exchanges on how to boost the lithium battery industry. Mr Liu Minhua, Vice President of BTBU expressed the hope that more scientists and young scholars will join their exchanges and cooperation in the future to jointly implement the global development initiative and promote global sustainable development.
