Munoth Industries sets up li-cell unit for Rs 165 cr

CHENNAI: The city-based Munoth Industries has set up a lithium cell manufacturing facility on 30 acres, at an outlay of Rs 165 cr in electronic manufacturing cluster -2, Tirupati.

Currently, India imports complete requirements of lithium ion cells primarily from China, South Korea, Vietnam and Hong Kong. The demand for lithium batteries in non-automotive applications is predicted to increase from 0.3 GWh to 12 GWh by 2030 driven by telecom towers, data centres, grid-scale renewable energy (RE) integration and rooftop solar.

The installed capacity (phase 1) is 270 MWh and can produce 20,000 cells of 10Ah capacity daily. These cells are used in power bank and this capacity is around 60% of India’s current requirement. The factory can also produce cells for other consumer electronics like mobile phones, hearable and wearable devices.

This facility will employ over 250 people. Munoth Industries has a technical tie-up with China-based Tianjin Lishen and BPI. The company is in talks with leading players for supply of lithium cells. The company will set up phase 2 to cater to Energy storage system and phase 3 to cater to EV segment with further investments of Rs 635 cr. It will become a 1.25 GWh company after phase 3 and will employ around 800 people.