(Yicai) April 19 -- Shenzhen Senior Technology Material, one of China’s major manufacturers of separators for lithium-ion batteries, has secured a six-year supply deal from South Korean electric car battery maker Samsung SDI in the firm’s latest tie-up with an overseas client.

Shenzhen Technology will supply Yongjin-based SDI with around 2.2 billion square meters of battery separators from now until the end of 2030, the Shenzhen-headquartered company said today, citing the memorandum of understanding penned between the two parties the same day.

The quantity is an estimate only and the actual figure will not be bound to the MOU, it said. The pair will also explore the feasibility of business partnerships in North America, it added, without going into more details on future tie-ups.

Senior Technology has linked arms with several overseas battery makers in recent months. It received an order in November last year to supply South Korea’s LG Energy Solution with at least 12 billion sqm of battery separators to its plants around the world over the next seven years. It is also supplier to Sweden’s Northvolt and Norway’s Freyr Battery.

Despite the new deals, Senior Technology’s net profit plunged 41.4 percent in the first quarter from the same period last year due to stiff competition, according to its latest earnings report released yesterday. Revenue climbed 7.5 percent to CNY715 million (USD98.8 million).

And last year, profit slumped 19.8 percent to CNY576 million (USD79.5 million), according to its 2023 financial report also released yesterday. Revenue advanced 4.6 percent to CNY3 billion (USD414.3 million). Around 15.5 percent of its revenue came from overseas markets.

The company, which had a secondary listing on the Six Swiss Exchange in December last year, is rapidly expanding capacity to meet its growing orders. Last year, production of battery separators jumped 50 percent from the year before to 2.6 billion sqm.

On the disappointing earnings, Senior Technology’s share price [SHE: 300568] sank as much as 6 percent this morning. But after the news of the Samsung SDI deal was announced, the losses narrowed and the stock ended the day down 2.4 percent at CNY10.14 (USD1.40).

Editor: Kim Taylor