Chinese battery materials producer Huayou Cobalt announced that its soon-to-be operational factory in Hungary has secured a nine-year supply agreement with Eve Energy. From 2026 through 2035, the facility will deliver approximately 127,800 tons of ultra-high-nickel ternary cathode material to Eve Energy’s Hungarian lithium battery plant, with about 126,500 tons scheduled for delivery between 2027 and 2031. The final volumes and delivery schedule will be confirmed based on future purchase orders.
This new agreement follows a September deal in which Huayou Cobalt committed to supplying 164,000 tons of ternary precursor cathode materials to LG Energy Solution through the end of 2030. Under that arrangement, the Hungarian plant is slated to provide around 88,000 tons to LG’s manufacturing site in Poland.
Based on current market prices for high-nickel NCM811 cathode material, the Eve Energy contract carries an estimated value of roughly CNY 21.2 billion (about USD 3 billion). Huayou Cobalt said the agreement is aimed at meeting demand from premium automakers in Europe and will strengthen the company’s integration into the regional electric vehicle supply chain.
The Hungarian facility is backed by a planned investment of EUR 1.3 billion (approximately USD 1.5 billion). Its first phase, which carries a budget of EUR 252 million (USD 292 million), is designed to produce 25,000 tons of high-nickel ternary cathode materials annually and is expected to begin operations by year-end.
Eve Energy is constructing its own large-scale battery plant in Hungary with a CNY 10 billion (USD 1.4 billion) investment. The site is due to start production in 2027 and will manufacture 28 gigawatt-hours of cylindrical ternary lithium batteries per year, primarily serving BMW’s electric vehicle facility in Debrecen.
Source: Yicai Global
