If a modern electric vehicle battery can be compared to a living organism, then high-tech copper foil is both its nervous system and vascular network. The production of this critically important component is precisely what Gansu Hailiang New Energy Materials Co., Ltd. specializes in — a subsidiary of the industrial giant Hailiang Group, which is listed in the Fortune Global 500 and holds world leadership in non-ferrous metal processing. As part of a press tour organized by the Chinese Embassy in Armenia, correspondents from Armenia-NEWS.am visited Urumqi.

Ultra-thin copper foil

The company’s core expertise is the production of ultra-thin electrolytic copper foil manufactured by electrodeposition.

The company’s product line covers two key segments of the modern market:

Energy of the future (EV & ESS): In lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems, the foil serves as the anode current collector.

The technological secret is simple: the thinner and stronger the sheet, the higher the energy density inside the battery and the greater the vehicle’s driving range.

High-precision electronics (PCB): Production of standardized foil for printed circuit boards used in semiconductors and 5G telecommunications equipment.

Innovation status: Gansu Hailiang’s developments in ultra-strong nanostructured materials with enhanced ductility regularly receive China’s highest state awards and are recognized as strategically important scientific achievements.

The company’s products are used by industry giants such as BYD and Hyundai.

The company’s main production facilities are located in the Lanzhou New Area (Gansu Province). The project, launched at the turn of 2021–2022, was built in several stages and quickly transformed into one of the largest industrial sites of its kind on the planet.

The Gansu site became only the first link in Hailiang’s global strategy. Exporting its expertise, the group has already deployed similar capacities in Indonesia and Morocco, ensuring direct access to the markets of North America and Europe.

The parent group’s partnership network includes automotive flagships, leading climate systems manufacturers, and the largest battery cell developers.

Lanzhou as the new epicenter of Chinese industry

The placement of the Gansu Hailiang complex in the same industrial hub as other regional giants (such as the engineering holding Lanzhou Lanshi) is not accidental, but an element of Beijing’s deliberate strategy. The Chinese government is steadily transforming Northwestern China into an advanced industrial hub, where fundamental heavy engineering harmoniously coexists with next-generation green technologies.

Arus Bakunts, Sophie Elizbaryan