China’s BTR targets $1bn revenue from Moroccan plants

Chinese electric battery producer BTR New Material Group expects revenues of $1.2 billion from its Moroccan factories after production starts next year, according to a media report.

Production at the Chinese company’s plants in the north of the country is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2026, general manager Peter Yang told Asharq News.

The plants are designed to have an annual production capacity of 50,000 tonnes for cathodes and 60,000 tonnes for anodes, with investment reaching $750 million.

Morocco has free trade agreements with both the European Union and the US. However, Donald Trump has put tariffs of 30 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent on most Arab countries, including Morocco.

Work on constructing two factories started last year in the Mohammed VI Tangier Tech Industrial City.

The production capacity is sufficient to supply half a million cars annually, with most of the production to be exported, Yang said.

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BTR is among the world’s biggest manufacturers of electric battery components and a supplier to EV companies such as China’s BYD and US company Tesla.

Last June the Chinese-European group Gotion High Tech signed a $1.3 billion deal with the Moroccan government to build a gigafactory to manufacture EV batteries.

In 2023 China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt and South Korean chemical maker LG Chem have previously revealed plans to build a lithium refinery and cathode materials plant in Morocco.

French car producer Renault announced an agreement with Moroccan mining company Managem in June 2022 to obtain 5,000 tonnes of low-carbon cobalt sulfate annually, starting this year.