From August 22 to 23, Thomas HAJ, Chairman of Germany's HAJ Group, led a delegation to visit the Eastern Dazhou Economic Development Zone in Sichuan Province, toured Sichuan Xingkong Sodium Battery Co., Ltd. And signed a strategic cooperation agreement. On August 23, the official website of Dazhou Municipal People's Government published a report on Mayor Liang Lei meeting with the HAJ Group delegation, confirming exchanges on deepening practical cooperation in energy chemicals and new-type energy storage; on August 24, Sichuan Online's Dazhou channel followed up.
The two sides reached three areas of cooperation consensus: first, HAJ Group and Xingkong Sodium will cooperate comprehensively to bring sodium-ion energy storage products to the European market within one year, establishing a certification, logistics and grid-connection countdown list to ensure on-time delivery of the first products; second, promote HAJ Group to set up operations in the Eastern Dazhou Economic Development Zone, leveraging its European fuel-card and importer network for two-way Sino-European trade in Dazhou chemical products such as urea; third, advance friendly exchanges between Dazhou and German cities.
Sichuan Xingkong Sodium Battery Co., Ltd. Settled in the Eastern Dazhou Economic Development Zone in 2024, with a planned total investment of RMB 11.5 billion to build a sodium-ion battery full-industry-chain project: a 3 GWh PACK integration line is already in production, while a 7.5 GWh cell production line, a 30,000 t/y cathode and anode material production line and an R&D center are scheduled for completion by the end of 2026. In March 2026, Xingkong Sodium signed a memorandum of understanding with BASF (China) on joint R&D in frontier sodium-ion battery technology and jointly built a laboratory. HAJ Group is a major German energy company covering traditional energy trading and the new-energy transition, with a fuel network covering 9 European countries. Its parent company, Liaoning Xingkong Sodium Battery Co., Ltd., signed a sodium-ion battery smart factory project with Huzhou Nanxun Economic Development Zone in Zhejiang on August 15 (as reported by itdcw.com in August).