On Nov. 5, the 2019 China International Nickel & Cobalt Industry Forum, hosted by China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, sponsored by GEM Co., Ltd. and organized by Beijing Antaike Information Co., Ltd. was held in Yichang, Hubei, where namely as the world's capital of hydro-power and the China's lung of power. Nearly 2,000 industry leaders from the fields of production enterprises, research institutes, investment, trade and environmental protection in more than 10 countries and regions around the world gathered in Yichang to discuss the development of nickel & cobalt industry. As a key raw material for new energy vehicle power batteries, nickel & cobalt metal is so popular with manufacturers, indicating the expected prospect of the power battery industry!

Chen Quanxun, the Secretary of the Party Committee and President of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, David Weight, the President of the International Cobalt Association, Ricardo Ferreira, the Director of Marketing Research and Statistics Department of International Nickel Research Group, and Prof. Xu Kaihua, the CEO of GEM Co., Ltd. attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. Dr. Song Quanming, the General Manager of the International Nickel Association China Zone, Zhou Youming, the General Manager Jinchuan Group Nickel Salt Co., Ltd. Chen Hongliang, the President of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., Ltd. and other important guests attended the opening ceremony.

President Chen Quanxun said that the economic situation and the internal and external environment are complicated and ever-changing in 2019. However, the nickel-cobalt industry of China remained generally stable, nickel prices hit a new high in recent years, and the volatility of cobalt prices was decreasing. Under the current situation, the entire industry should be fully confident and work together to innovate and develop this industry. We must promote consensus, reduce friction, and jointly develop the market; we must change development ideas, improve quality, reduce costs, reduce costs and increase efficiency, and be beneficial from the improvement of product quality.

Chairman Xu Kaihua said in his speech that he is very grateful to China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association and Antaike for choosing Yichang as the host city of this annual meeting. Yichang is located in the upper middle stream of the Yangtze River, and its geographical position is unique. It provides a good  environment for the elites of the nickel-cobalt industry to communicate. I hope that everyone can make good use of this opportunity to fully communicate and wish the conference will be completely successful.

After the opening ceremony, the guests gave keynotes on the China's economy which coexisted with the crisis and the challenges and the green development of the nickel-cobalt industry. And the participants also conducted in-depth discussions and exchanges in the meeting session which is called “High-level Dialogue of Nickel-Cobalt Industry”. The dialogue focused on the hot spot and difficult issue of the industry such as development status and trends of nickel-cobalt industry, the prospects of the demand for nickel from power batteries, development status and prospects of Indonesian nickel industry, and latest observations on the market of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Prof. Xu gave an experience sharing keynote at the conference, introduced the challenges and green development opportunities of cobalt-nickel products, shared GEM's development experience in the power battery materials industry in recent years, deeply analyzed the development status and imagined a bright future. The progress of the industry would be really promoted by realizing the cooperation between the value chain and the industrial chain, with high-quality and green development. Xu’s report greatly inspired and boosted the power battery materials industry.

Lots of guests visited the GEM parallel session during the conference. They took photos, and were very appreciative of the achievements of the GEM’s recycling culture. In the meantime, GEM has conducted in-depth discussions with leading domestic and foreign industry companies such as Glencore, ATL, XTC, Brunp, BYD, Umicore, Samsung SDI, Minmetals, MCC, Ronbay, Shanshan, and reached a beautiful vision of strategic cooperation and joint response to industry development challenges. GEM also communicated with the CDI and the Nickel Institute, and they will strongly support GEM in playing an active role in the international nickel-cobalt industry.

Prof. Xu invited all guests to the Dinner of Yangtze River Night named by GEM. He said: “Happy to drink with all the friends present for a bright future brought by Nickel. Let us to drink, to happy, to image, no matter what happened in the past because of Cobalt”. Everyone felt the great enthusiasm of GEM as the host of Hubei enterprises.

After the forum, more than 200 guests visited the Jingmen GEM industry park on the morning of Nov. 7. They visited the whole process production line of the recycling industry from waste to remanufacturing: Urban Mines Museum, the National WEEE Recycling Engineering Technology Research Center, the Green and Advanced WEEE Processing Center, The Waste Power Battery Recycling Engineering Technology Center, the Utilization of Scarce Resource and Complex Low-grade Raw Material of Cobalt & Nickel Research Center, the Ternary Precursor Material Workshop in the south park. They had a close contact with the production and construction situation of GEM, and understood the unique green and recycling culture of GEM.

GEM successfully co-hosted the 2019 China International Nickel & Cobalt Industry Annual Forum, which embodies GEM as a pioneer in the circular economy industry, as a leader in the manufacturing of battery materials, and as a dream builder of the beautiful Chinese Dream. GEM, which has established a global competitiveness, will continue sticking to the dual-track driving strategy of "Urban Mines and New Energy Materials", actively seizes the opportunities of new energy vehicle development, and based on the present, actively transforms and optimizes the industrial structure to realize the value chain from the low-end to the mid-high-end extension, accelerating the construction of the world's highest level of quality control system, creating a benchmark for the high-quality development of Chinese manufacturing industry, and contributing to the high-quality sustainable development of China and the global nickel-cobalt industry.

Pic.1 2019 China International Ni&Co Industry Annual Forum Site

Pic.2 Chairman Xu Kaihua delivered an opening speech and an experience report

Pic.3 Ni&Co High-level Dialogue

Pic.4 GEM and Partner held a symposium at the parallel session

Pic.5 GEM invited guests to join a friendship dinner

Pic. 6 Participants visited the GEM Museum in Jingmen