On the morning of September 16, a groundbreaking ceremony for a 50,000 t/y high-performance sodium-ion battery foil project was held in the Shangqiu Urban-Rural Integration Demonstration Zone. Attendees included Shangqiu Vice Mayor Fan Jianxun, Demonstration Zone Party Working Committee Secretary Zhang Feng, Zone Deputy Secretary and Management Committee Director Wang Baohua, and Wang Yafeng, Party Secretary and Chairman of Shenhuo Group, along with leading officials from the Shangqiu Development and Reform Commission, the Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, the Bureau of Commerce, the Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning, the Bureau of Ecology and Environment and the Bureau of Science and Technology, plus leadership of the Demonstration Zone and the Yushang Economic Development Zone. Fan Jianxun declared the project started. Wang Yafeng said the group will firmly shoulder responsibility as the construction entity, strictly controlling safety, quality, environmental protection and schedule, working against a reverse timetable to ensure the project is completed and commissioned as early as possible, and will deepen practical cooperation with the Demonstration Zone to extend, supplement and strengthen the industrial chain.
The project is implemented by Shenhuo New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Shenhuo Coal & Power (000933.SZ). It plans about 40,000 square meters of production workshops plus an intelligent warehousing system, equipped with three 1850mm and three 2150mm foil rolling mills, inspection-integrated slitters, precision cutters and corona treaters. It will mainly produce 1070 and 1100 alloy grades of 8-20 micron battery foil for both sodium-ion cathodes and anodes, with a 24-month construction period. Per the Shangqiu Municipal Government, once completed the project is expected to provide more than 300 jobs and about RMB 120 million in annual taxes and profits, filling the foil capacity gap at Shenhuo New Materials' Shangqiu base and bringing its foil processing capability to 165,000 t/y.
On funding, Shenhuo's board resolution announcement dated September 15 (Announcement No. 2026-050) shows the board approved on September 14 applications for up to RMB 100 million and RMB 272 million in loans from the China Development Bank's new policy-based financial instrument for the 50,000 t/y sodium-ion battery foil project and the 110,000 t/y green new-energy foil project of Yunnan Shenhuo New Materials, respectively, injecting capital into the project companies through tiered increases - with the Shenhuo New Materials injection booked to capital reserve and registered capital unchanged.
Because lithium alloys with aluminium at low potential, lithium-ion anodes require copper foil; sodium does not undergo the same low-potential alloying reaction with aluminium, so sodium-ion batteries can use aluminium foil for both cathodes and anodes. Battery foil processing fees are under pressure amid intensifying competition (per the company's own investor relations reply), so project profitability depends on process stability, yield and customer qualification, and qualification cycles at leading battery makers are long and demanding - groundbreaking does not equal order wins.