Epsilon Carbon enters into battery material biz, to invest Rs 500 cr by 2025

Coal tar derivatives company Epsilon Carbon on Monday said it is planning to invest Rs 500 crore over the next five years to manufacture graphite anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, marking its foray into battery material business.

The battery material business will be housed under a new subsidiary, Epsilon Advanced Materials, the company said in a statement. “The purpose of setting up the subsidiary is to become a preferred supplier of synthetic graphite material to cell manufacturers and energy storage device companies across the globe. The company plans to invest Rs 500 crore in next five years to establish 50,000 tonne anode material capacity by 2025,” it said.

Epsilon has commissioned its new manufacturing facility in Karnataka to produce 5,000 tonne anode material annually. It plans to triple this capacity to 15,000 tonne in 2021 and to 50,000 tonne per annum by 2025.

”The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront the importance of India’s economic recovery based on principles of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. India has been pushing for an aggressive EV policy which encourages and ensures that the country’s program keeps pace with the global developments,” its Managing Director Vikram Handa said.

Historically, China has been supplying more than 80 per cent of the global demand for graphite anodes to the total lithium-ion battery (LiB) supply chain. “To make India self-reliant in e-mobility, the country is aiming towards establishing manufacturing leadership in the EV (electric vehicle) space and Epsilon Advanced Materials’ manufacturing leadership in graphite anodes will make India self-sufficient for a key raw material for LiB cells,” Handa added.

Apart from the anode material manufacturing facility, Epsilon Advanced Materials has also set up a target-oriented research and development laboratory to cover a complete array of carbon material testing as well as cell and pouch lithium battery cell testing to improve the quality of the material further by continuous development, the company said.