(Yicai) Nov. 12 -- Shares of Tongxing Environmental Protection Technology surged by their daily trading limit after the Chinese waste management services provider unveiled a plan to invest CNY3.2 billion (USD449.5 million) in two factories producing sodium-ion batteries and cathode materials.

Tongxing Technology [SHE: 003027] soared 10 percent to CNY22.15 (USD3.11) a share as of 1.40 p.m. in Shenzhen today.

Tongxing Environmental will spend CNY1.2 billion building a sodium-ion battery plant with an annual capacity of 6 gigawatt-hours and CNY2 billion in a sodium-ion battery cathode materials factory with an output of 100,000 tons a year in Pingshan county, southwestern Sichuan province, the Hefei-based firm announced late yesterday, citing an investment deal it penned with the local government.

Tongxing Environmental will accelerate the construction of its industrial production capacity of sodium-ion batteries and key raw materials, bring new business growth sources, and speed up its strategic transformation through the latest agreement, according to the company.

Tongxing Environmental launched its sodium-ion battery business in 2022 and has achieved pilot production of relevant cathode materials and cells, it said in its first-half financial report. Its cathode materials have advantages in performance indicators such as energy density, while it mainly targets low-speed electric vehicles and energy storage scenarios for its batteries.

Sodium-ion batteries, which are very similar to lithium-ion batteries, and related raw materials projects are becoming a new investment hotspot in China.

Even though sodium-ion batteries' energy storage capacity is not as good as that of lithium-ion batteries, they are cheaper to produce than lithium-ion ones because their main electrode materials are sodium salts and have better safety and low-temperature performance features.

Editor: Martin Kadiev