[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] Inometry, a specialized company in secondary battery X-ray inspection equipment and stacking manufacturing equipment, is expanding its entry into the European electric vehicle market by supplying secondary battery inspection equipment to Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt.
On the 7th, Inometry announced that it signed a contract to supply secondary battery X-ray inspection equipment worth approximately 4.8 billion KRW (4,409,981 USD) with Chinese company Wuxi Lead Intelligent Equipment. The equipment will be installed at Northvolt's factory in Sweden.
Wuxi Lead Intelligent Equipment is a global manufacturer of intelligent secondary battery equipment. In January last year, it signed a contract with Sweden's Northvolt to build lithium battery production facilities worth 1.941 billion CNY (approximately 330 billion KRW).
Northvolt is a battery manufacturer with major European automobile companies such as Volkswagen, BMW, and Scania as its customers. It is making aggressive investments to develop batteries and expand facilities, building a battery factory in Sweden with an annual production capacity of 40 GWh, aiming for mass production next year. It is also constructing a factory in Germany with an annual production capacity of 24 GWh in cooperation with Volkswagen. Its goal is to capture 25% of the European electric vehicle battery market by 2030.
An Inometry official stated, "The supply of inspection equipment to Northvolt was carried out through consultations with Wuxi Lead Intelligent Equipment in China," and added, "Discussions on additional supply are already underway simultaneously with the first order, so additional orders are expected to continue next year."
He continued, "As global battery companies including Northvolt are expanding large-scale factories to secure dominance in the electric vehicle market, discussions on supplying not only secondary battery inspection equipment but also stacking equipment are actively progressing," and said, "We are conducting aggressive sales mainly targeting Chinese secondary battery companies, so we expect more good news in the future."
Inometry counts major global secondary battery companies such as China's largest electric vehicle manufacturer BYD and the three major domestic battery companies as its clients. The X-ray inspection equipment can inspect all battery types regardless of form, such as prismatic and pouch types, and offers faster and more accurate inspection speeds per minute compared to competitors. The secondary battery stacking manufacturing equipment is over 30% faster in production speed and has a lower defect rate than existing stacking equipment.
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