China's battery recycling market soars as power battery retirements surge

The large-scale retirement of power batteries continues to attract numerous enterprises to the battery recycling industry, with the market size projected to surpass 100 billion yuan (approximately 138 billion U.S. dollars) by 2030.

In 2023, the total volume of retired power batteries exceeded 580,000 tons, according to the China Society of Automotive Engineers. This growing volume has drawn various companies involved in recycling retired power batteries through cascade utilization and reprocessing cycles.

In Quzhou, eastern China's Zhejiang Province, the recycled battery packs will be disassembled, with the battery units that show better performance being reexamined and selected for reassembly into new batteries that meet the demands of cascade utilization.

"We will collaborate with partners to gather data on batteries and assess their quality to determine whether they can be used in cascade utilization. The batteries repurposed for cascade utilization are reassembled for applications such as pallet trucks, forklift trucks in factories, and energy storage or solar power integration products," said Bao Wei, manager of a recycling science company in Zhejiang Province.

Many companies in related industries have reported an annual business growth of around 30 percent, accelerating their expansion both domestically and internationally.

"We have two production plants, one in Xiamen and the other in Ganzhou. Both are focused on subdivided sectors that form a closed-loop industrial chain," said Zhu Xiaoming, business director of a recycling company in Xiamen City, east China's Fujian Province.

If retired power batteries do not meet the criteria for cascade utilization, they are sent for reprocessing. In Jingmen, central China's Hubei Province, a battery reprocessing company established last year is capable of processing around 20,000 tons of retired batteries annually. "After separation, the recycling rate of materials increases to over 98 percent. We can completely utilize all of the valuable elements in the batteries," said Wang Jintao, manager of a new material company in Hubei.

According to the manager of this company, the raw materials for their reprocessed batteries mainly come from waste generated by battery manufacturers. The processing capacity of the reprocessing industry currently exceeds the volume of retired batteries available.

"The industry has prepared well in advance to respond to the future boom in battery retirements," said Wang Jintao, manager of a new material company in Hubei.

Latest data shows that the recycling and reuse market for waste batteries is on the rise. It is estimated that the total capacity for cascade utilization and reprocessing in China has surpassed 800,000 tons and 1.8 million tons per year, respectively.

China's battery recycling market soars as power battery retirements surge

China's battery recycling market soars as power battery retirements surge

Commemorations honoring Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) martyrs were held on the banks of the Yalu River in Dandong, Liaoning Province on Tuesday as part of ongoing tributes to those who fought in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-1953).

The event was held to mark the return of the remains of 12 CPV martyrs, who were killed in the war, from the Republic of Korea (ROK) on Wednesday.

This will be the 13th such repatriation of CPV remains following the handover agreement between the two countries. Since 2014, the remains of 1,011 soldiers have been returned to China from the ROK, according to China's Ministry of Veterans Affairs.

More than 170 representatives, including veteran CPV soldiers, relatives of the martyrs, active-duty personnel, students, and other from various sectors of society, attended the event.

People boarded a ferry which slowly sailed down the Yalu River. Inside the cabin, all present stood in solemn silence as the national anthem of the People's Republic of China was played, and observed a moment of silence in honor of the CPV martyrs.

Then, they walked to the ship's railings one by one and scattered flower petals into the river to pay tribute to the martyrs.

"We, the CPV, went abroad to fight to defend our motherland, the people, and our good life and to resist U.S. imperialist aggression against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). I hope that our young comrades and students today will study hard and make contributions to our motherland," said Hu Changzhe, a CPV veteran.

"I feel deeply moved as these veteran soldiers are heroes who once fought for our country. Now, standing by the Yalu River, looking back on their past and remembering their comrades, they must be deeply touched," said Hong Jialu, a student at a branch of Liaoning Province Shiyan High School.

At the event, 10 student representatives from primary and middle schools read aloud a letter to express their reverence and remembrance for the heroic martyrs through their sincere words and heartfelt recitation.

The Korean War broke out in June 1950, eight months after the People's Republic of China was founded. At the request of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), China sent 2.9 million CPV soldiers to assist the DPRK during the war, of whom more than 360,000 were killed or injured.

Commemorations held to pay tribute to CPV heroes in northeast China