Amid the announcement of a landmark procurement agreement, the lithium battery cathode material leader, Ningbo Ronbay New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (688005.SH), disclosed a significant six-year deal with the global battery giant, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (300750.SZ), for the supply of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode materials. The agreement, spanning from the first quarter of 2026 to 2031, stipulates a total supply of 3.05 million tons of product, with a contract value exceeding 120 billion yuan—a figure triple the company's total revenue from 2023 through the first three quarters of 2025. Touted in the company's roadshow as the "largest historical order for lithium battery cathode materials brought by cutting-edge technology," this long-term contract, covering core materials for energy storage and power batteries, represents the single largest procurement agreement in the industry's history. However, the capital market's anticipated enthusiasm fizzled before it could ignite, as the Shanghai Stock Exchange promptly issued an inquiry letter the same evening, raising pointed questions regarding the agreement's compliance and the company's capacity to fulfill its obligations.
The inquiry letter specifically questioned whether the company was engaging in exaggerated statements, promotional language, or had motives to hype its stock price through the announcement of a large-value contract. Trading of the company's shares was urgently suspended on January 14th. During the roadshow, the company stated it was "inconvenient to elaborate in detail," leaving observers to wonder why this "super order," which had the potential to excite the market, triggered immediate regulatory scrutiny. The apparent contradiction centers on Ronbay Tech's contractual execution capabilities, yet beneath the surface lies the company's ambitious gamble to deeply align itself with the lithium battery industry's super "chain leader" as part of its strategic transformation.
The stock exchange's inquiry first targeted the alignment with production capacity. According to previous disclosures, Ronbay Tech possessed only 60,000 tons per year of constructed LFP cathode material capacity, acquired through the purchase of Guizhou Xinren. However, the new agreement requires an average annual supply of approximately 508,000 tons, creating a gap exceeding ten times the existing capacity. An audio recording from the roadshow obtained by reporters revealed that the company claimed to already have 280,000 square meters of factory space, providing a foundation for rapid capacity expansion and serving as a crucial guarantee for reaching 370,000 tons of capacity by the third quarter of the next year. Concurrently, the company's three major bases in the southwestern region are set to combine into a "LFP super factory," targeting a capacity scale exceeding one million tons by 2028.
Furthermore, the pricing associated with the long-term contract has sparked debate. Calculating based on the total value of 120 billion yuan and the supply volume of 3.05 million tons, the average unit price for LFP material in this order is only 39,300 yuan per ton. According to Shanghai Metals Market (SMM), the domestic LFP market price was approximately 55,000 yuan per ton on January 14th, indicating the contract price is over 30% lower than the prevailing market rate. This price is significantly below that of comparable agreements and appears inverted against the current trend of rising lithium carbonate prices. Addressing this in the roadshow, Chairman Bai Houshan stated that pricing is negotiated annually, with the price for 2026 already settled and the price for 2027 to be determined at the end of the year.
Additionally, Ronbay Tech attempted to justify its confidence by citing its "cutting-edge technology." The announcement referenced a recently implemented technological advancement that reportedly achieves industry leadership in key performance indicators for LFP products, such as iron dissolution rate, first-cycle efficiency, and compaction density. The company claims to have developed a fifth-generation product that is already in the application stage. It was further disclosed that "this revolutionary process shortens the production workflow from 15 steps to just 6, reduces investment costs by approximately 40%, cuts energy consumption by about 30%, achieves zero emissions, and possesses strong confidentiality and recyclability synergies."
Regarding the binding nature of the order, the company's stance appeared somewhat ambiguous. The announcement explicitly stated that "the agreement is binding on both parties." Yet, when questioned about the enforceability of the order, Bai Houshan responded, "It has a certain degree of binding force, but it is not very strong; the specifics are不便在这里透露了 (inconvenient to disclose here)." Concerning the details of the order volume, the company declined further explanation, citing "involvement of customer confidentiality agreements."
Behind this controversy lies Ronbay Tech's strategic pivot from nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) cathode materials to the LFP segment. This "hundred-billion-yuan long-term agreement" may represent a crucial move to rapidly position itself as a core supplier within the ecosystem of the lithium battery chain leader. As a leading player in the NCM cathode sector, Ronbay Tech only announced its entry into the LFP track in the first half of 2025. The capacity expansion plan disclosed in the roadshow is staggering, aiming for 600,000 tons of LFP capacity by 2026 and a planned total of 3 million tons of LFP capacity by 2030 across China, Europe, North America, and South Korea.
It is noteworthy that this agreement is not the first collaboration between Ronbay Tech and CATL. As early as January 2022, the two companies signed a strategic cooperation and long-term supply agreement, making Ronbay Tech a core supplier of high-nickel NCM cathode powder for CATL. That agreement stipulated the procurement of approximately 100,000 tons of high-nickel NCM materials by CATL from Ronbay Tech in 2022; from 2023 to the end of 2025, Ronbay Tech was designated as the "primary supplier" for this category. In November 2025, their cooperation extended further into emerging areas, with the signing of a supply agreement for sodium-ion battery cathode powder. This agreement stipulated that, provided technical and quality standards are met, CATL's annual procurement would constitute no less than 60% of its total purchases in this category, with price incentives offered if annual volumes reach 500,000 tons or more. The agreement is valid until 2029 and includes provisions for automatic renewal.
Clearly, Ronbay Tech is progressively deepening its ties with CATL. This is not an isolated case, as long-term contractual bindings are increasingly becoming a trend within the lithium battery industry. In September 2025, Longpan Technology signed an overseas supply agreement with CATL, committing to supply 157,500 tons of LFP material from Q2 2026 to 2031. In May of the same year, Wanrun New Energy reached an agreement with CATL for an estimated supply of 1.3231 million tons from 2025 to 2030; while the specific value was not disclosed, a mechanism for逐年供货递增 (year-on-year supply increase) was confirmed. Earlier, in June 2025, Fulintech signed a supplementary agreement with CATL, wherein CATL committed to an annual purchase volume of no less than 80% of the capacity of Fulintech's subsidiary and provided a 1.5 billion yuan advance payment to support its raw material strategy and capacity expansion.
However, this wave of long-term agreement fervor also conceals underlying irregularities. Recently, the emerging energy storage company Pengcheng Wuxian claimed to have signed a 60 GWh strategic cooperation agreement with Haixi Communications, only for Haixi Communications to issue an announcement refuting the claim—clarifying that only a 400 MWh battery cell procurement contract had been signed, a scale difference of 150 times. The emergence of such "exaggerated publicity" incidents has heightened regulatory vigilance regarding the规范性 (normative standards) of disclosures for large-value contracts, placing Ronbay Tech's case squarely in the spotlight of regulatory scrutiny.
It is worth noting that industry insiders analyzing the situation pointed out that locking in the priority allocation rights for a upstream supplier's new capacity over the next six years is essentially a strategy for the lithium battery chain leader to reshape the supply chain. By setting technical specifications, cost control, and delivery schedules as prerequisites, rather than offering blanket "take-or-pay" purchase commitments for whatever is produced, the super霸主 (super霸主/dominant player) is effectively transferring the risks of capacity expansion and technological iteration upstream to the suppliers. At the market close on January 13th, Ronbay Tech's stock price was 37.35 yuan per share, with a market capitalization of 26.7 billion yuan.
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