French environmental services company Suez has signed a strategic investment cooperation agreement with Chinese company Anhui Eagoal New Energy Group to develop a lithium battery (LIB) recycling facility in Changshu in China's Jiangsu province.
According to Suez, the facility will occupy 5.1 hectares and is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2027. The plant is to process 15,000 tonnes of end-of-life lithium batteries annually. It will also include a digitalised production line for new small power battery packs and energy storage battery packs with an annual capacity of 1.5 GWh, the French company reported.
The new recycling plant is to use dismantling and intelligent separation technologies to recover materials including lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and aluminium from end-of-life batteries. The investment volume was not disclosed.
The investment builds on both Suez's battery recycling activities in Europe and its existing presence in Changshu, where the group has operated for around 20 years. Suez notes that the project will support the development of a circular economy in the Yangtze River Delta while strengthening cooperation on battery lifecycle management between Chinese and foreign businesses.
Anhui Eagoal New Energy Group Co. Ltd is located in the Hefei Xinzhan High-Tech Industrial Development Zone and describes itself as a high-tech enterprise specialising in the management, operation, traceability, and recycling of electric vehicle (EV) lithium batteries and materials. Its operations range from battery production to pack management and end-of-life recycling.
In preparation for the signing, Suez representatives had twice visited Anhui Eagoal since last autumn for meetings to discuss cooperation in the clean energy and battery recycling sectors, according to the Chinese battery company.
