Gus Technology Co (格斯科技), a lithium-titanate-oxide (LTO) battery cell and pack maker, on Wednesday launched its first large-scale battery factory and said it is in discussing with potential customers to quadruple its battery capacity to meet fast-growing demand.
The NT$4 billion (US$130.3 million) fab, in Taoyuan City’s Jhongli District (中壢), is to start operations in the third quarter, with an initial capacity of 250 megawatts per year.
The schedule is ahead of Gus Technology’s local competitors, including Taiwan Cement Corp (台泥), Formosa Group (台塑集團) subsidiary Formosa Smart Energy Tech Corp (台塑新智能科技) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
Photo courtesy of Gus Technology Co
The fab is expected to reach full capacity of 1 gigawatt per year by the second quarter of next year, the company said.
The company counts Japan’s Kaneka Corp, Toshiba Corp and InnoBat Auto of Slovakia, the European pioneering supplier of premium batteries for electric vehicles, as its major customers.
Once the fab is 100 percent utilized, it would produce 6 million high-end LTO battery packs per year, which would translate into an annual revenue of NT$6 billion to NT$9 billion, Gus chairman Chang Chung-chieh (張忠傑) said during the launch ceremony on Wednesday.
The company plans to produce battery cells used in high-end automated guided vehicles and home battery storage systems at the fab in the initial stage, Chang said. Next year, it will start shipping battery cells used in electric vehicles, given a longer qualification process with carmakers, he said. The company is also expanding its business scope to battery cells used in unmanned aircrafts, he said.
Gus also focuses on developing battery materials used in next-generation NCM batteries, which compose of lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese.
Gus, an eight-year-old company based in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止), said new capacity expansions are being planned, as customers’ demand for its LTO battery packs would surge to more than 4 gigawatts within next three years, Chang told reporters.
Chang said the uptake of LTO battery soft packs are increasing, especially for cars, as such soft-pack batteries are 15 percent lighter than the traditionally hard square and cylindrical battery packs and can be used under extreme temperatures from minus Celsius 40 degrees to 60 degrees. Besides, its LTO soft-pack batteries made by Gus can be recharged and discharged 10,000 times.
Gus on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with its customer Midwest Energy Pvt of India to build a LTO battery pack in India, with most funding from the Indian company.
Other factories could be built with potential customers abroad, the company said.
The company also signed two MOUs with Echion Technologies of the UK and Beyonder of Norway to make LTO batteries on a contract basis.
Gus would also cooperate with its international partners in aspects such as battery cell anode materials, energy storage equipment and raw materials, it said.
LTO batteries charge faster than conventional lithium-ion batteries and are safer.
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
RSS