(Yicai) Sept. 23 -- Shanshan's stock price rose after the world's largest supplier of synthetic graphite anode announced a plan to invest CNY5.1 billion (USD761 million) building a new factory to produce the main active material in lithium-ion battery anode.

After jumping by as much as 9.8 percent in Shanghai earlier today, Shanshan's shares [SHA: 600884] closed 5.9 percent higher at CNY11.92 (USD1.78) apiece.

Shanshan will build the new plant in Baotou, a city in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, with construction scheduled to start next March and commissioning targeted for July 2028, the Ningbo-based company said late yesterday.

The project will include an integrated production line with annual output of 150,000 tons of anode material, along with 50,000 tons of annual standalone graphitization processing capacity, according to the company.

Graphitization is a key step in producing synthetic graphite anode, involving the treatment of carbon precursors at ultra-high temperatures to convert amorphous carbon into graphite crystals.

Shanshan said the additional graphitization capacity is needed because its existing anode plant in Baotou does not have enough capacity for the process and will use the new facility to process raw materials supplied by that plant.

The project will expand Shanshan’s high-quality capacity and help meet growing demand for anode from power and energy storage battery clients, the company said, adding that it will also allow the two existing Baotou plants to coordinate capacity more efficiently, better match medium- and long-term orders from major clients, and strengthen the firm’s production footprint in northern China.

Shanshan is a leading supplier of lithiumion battery anode materials and display polarizers. It holds 21 percent of the global anode materials market, while its share of the global polarizer market exceeds 30 percent.

The capacity expansion plan is Shanshan's first major industrial investment after Anhui provinces state-owned assets manager became its actual controller in July. Shanshan Group, its former controller, went bankrupt and was restructured by court order in March last year, leaving the listed company among the disposed assets.

Editor: Martin Kadiev