Specialist data analysts Global Data claim that the world's clean energy sector could be hindered by a 10% fall in Chinese battery production capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
They say that manufacturing across the global clean energy sector including renewable energy, battery energy storage and electric vehicles could all be affected; and crucially, two of China's major lithium-ion manufacturers - CATL and BYD - are facing potential disruption to production facilities located in provinces that were highly affected by the pandemic. Overall, COVID-19 is expected to mean 26 GWh less output than planned in China's manufacturing capacity.
GlobalData's Senior Power Analyst Somik Das commented: “With COVID-19 causing a slowdown of China’s production output and economic growth prospects, the countries position as a global manufacturing hub is directly hurting international markets such as the clean energy sector where it is a battery manufacturing powerhouse.
"Several energy storage companies have rearranged their equipment lines or supply chains owing to a shortage in the workforce because of the pandemic. The Chinese EV charging infrastructure market have been negatively impacted by this, experiencing a set back with respect to battery storage capacity addition.
"However, backed by the Chinese Government, CATL and BYD, two of the largest battery manufacturers in China, have been widening their production capacities abroad."
While there are plans to extend production facilities worldwide, 88 of the 115 global battery 'mega factories' that are planned for completion by 2029 with support from the Chinese government are set to be located in the country. China also dominates the planned Li-ion pipeline installed battery storage capacity with 564 GWh by 2028, compared to Europe's 348 GWh capacity by 2029.
Das continued: “The scene should improve soon. Slowly and steadily as China makes its way out of the pandemic the battery storage sector is expected to pick up the pace as the Chinese battery manufacturers return to business as usual and make up for lost output in the second half of the fiscal year.”
With UK bike manufacturers and retailers seeing a huge boom in business as people turn to two wheels to get their daily exercise, it remains to be seen whether availability of e-bikes could be affected by the slowing down of li-ion battery production - but eBikeTips will be checking in on our industry contacts to see if they're experiencing problems sourcing hardware over the next few months.
