On January 26, Yongxing Materials announced that it has signed an agreement with CATL to form a joint venture which will in charge of the construction of a 50,000tpa lithium carbonate project with total investment of up to RMB2.5 billion (USD396 million). The joint venture will first invest no more than RMB1.5 billion (USD237 million) in the phase one of the project with capacity of 30,000tpa, and the remaining capacity will be built when the phase one reaches its designed capacity.