CATL’s battery cell project in Hungary has been ordered to temporarily suspend operations after regulators identified occupational safety issues linked to nickel exposure at the company’s plant in Debrecen, according to the government office of Hajdú-Bihar County, as reported by Caixin. Local authorities said on August 31 that CATL must complete all required corrective actions related to workplace safety defects before cell production can officially begin. For now, regulators are allowing only equipment debugging at the site.
The Debrecen facility is part of a 7.34 billion euro investment plan designed to create a battery hub with a planned total capacity of 100 GWh for battery modules and cells. The module plant, with annual capacity of 5 GWh, began production in May 2026, but the cell production lines have not yet entered formal mass production.
The suspension follows incidents during debugging and trial production, when workers were exposed to nickel dust above occupational limits. CATL said that after routine biological exposure monitoring began in early June 2026, nine employees were found in August to have elevated nickel indicators. Inspections by Hungarian authorities between August 11 and 25 later found inadequate protective equipment in several areas. On August 25, regulators ordered work to stop immediately in the laser cutting workshops for positive and negative foils, the winding workshops, and the cell drying workshops.
The company also faces delays on the licensing front. The first phase of the cell plant received its production license on August 25, but operations are expected to be postponed. The application for the second phase was rejected on August 19 because completed buildings were incorrectly labeled on the general site plan.
The disruption affects supply chains tied to the Hungarian site, which mainly serves local factories for Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Reports indicate CATL is sourcing batteries from other plants to continue supplying Mercedes-Benz, while BMW-related production has not yet started.
Separately, CATL has faced additional environmental scrutiny. A Hungarian lawmaker said the company was fined 10 million forints, or about $31,000, for breaches of integrated environmental permits, including missing waste labels, inadequate hazardous waste signage, and weak security controls that allowed unauthorized access.
The stricter oversight follows a political shift in Hungary after the opposition defeated the long-ruling government in April 2026. The new administration has begun reviewing major investment projects approved under the previous government. Other Chinese battery-related companies in Hungary, including Semcorp and BYD, have also faced regulatory action and delays.
Source: CarNewsChina
