(Yicai Global) Feb. 28 -- China’s Zhejiang Hailiang, one of the world's largest copper tube and bar manufacturers, is following its customers overseas and will invest CNY5.9 billion (USD849 million) to construct a factory that makes the high-performance copper foil used in electric car batteries in Indonesia.

The new facility, which will be located in the Java Integrated Industrial and Port Estate, will have an annual output of 100,000 tons of high-performance electrolytic copper foil, the Shaoxing, eastern Zhejiang province-based company said yesterday.

Many leading battery manufacturers are expanding their production capacity overseas, and by building a factory abroad, Hailiang can become their go-to supplier, it said, without giving the names of any such possible clients.

Investing in Indonesia will help circumvent any international trade barriers, reduce tariffs and transportation costs as well as quickly increase global market share, it added.

The facility will be built in two phases, Hailiang said. The first phase will have an annual output of 50,000 tons and should be completed in 2025 and the second phase will start construction in 2025 and be put into operation two years later.

The firm is mulling setting up its next copper foil production base in the US, it said, without disclosing any more information. Hailiang is already building a copper tube factory in Texas which should start operating soon.

The first phase of Hailiang's CNY8.9 billion (USD1.2 billion) copper foil materials project in northwestern Gansu province should be ready by the end of the first quarter, it said. The Gansu factory, which when finished will have an output of 150,000 tons a year, will start supplying battery giants Contemporary Amperex Technology and BYD in the second quarter.

Unaffected by the news, Hailiang's share price [SHE:002203] edged up 0.57 percent to close at CNY12.38 (USD1.78) today.

Editor: Kim Taylor