Banner to expand in China with Leoch licensing deal

European lead battery producer the Banner Group revealed on May 17 it is set to expand in China under a licensing deal with Leoch.

Under the terms of the partnership, batteries giant Leoch will manufacture certain premium batteries in China under the Banner brand for the domestic market.

Until now, Austria-headquartered Banner has had a presence in the Chinese market solely through individual customers.

Banner Group commercial CEO Andreas Bawart said the move was in line with the firm’s plans to acquire new markets in Asia and the Americas, as well as cooperating with partners outside Europe.

“We have now found the ideal partner for this objective in China and therefore the time is ripe for market growth.”

Leoch owner and chairman Dong Li said the Banner brand already had an excellent reputation in

Asia and the partners had a shared commitment to high standards quality and innovation.

“These shared values also open up new opportunities for us to expand our teamwork in other product and application areas and we look forward with great anticipation to a successful cooperation.”

Banner, which celebrated 85 years in the battery business in 2022, is Austria’s only car battery producer and counts itself as being among the industry’s five largest manufacturers in Europe.

Leoch, with annual sales revenues of more than $1.75 billion, sells its products to over 100 countries.

In March, Leoch confirmed plans to build a manufacturing plant in Mexico to ramp up its market presence in the Americas.

Production figures of the newly restarted German lead plant Stolberg are to be kept under wraps, Batteries International has learned.

Stolberg’s acquisition by the Trafigura Group was completed in February and the firm said on April 6 that the plant had been restarted after being out of action since 2021.

The plant is now being run by Trafigura’s Nyrstar business — but a spokesperson told Batteries International on 2 June no production figures for any Trafigura asset would be released.

The spokesperson declined to discuss potential new investment at the site — despite Nyrstar saying last year there would be “continuous assessment” of future investment once the acquisition had been finalized.

Stolberg previously had the capacity to produce 155,000 tonnes of lead and more than 100 different specifications of market-leading lead alloys and produce 130,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid.

Batteries International reported last November that four European lead smelters had been placed under review for potential temporary closure as the region grappled with the combined economic and energy crisis fuelled by the Russia-Ukraine war.

In May, it was revealed that lead and zinc processing at Glencore’s Portovesme subsidiary in Italy could be replaced with a lithium ion battery recycling operation in partnership with Li-Cycle.