Ultracap Vendor Licenses Technology to Chinese Utility

Apr 26, 2006 12:06 PM

Maxwell Technologies has signed a contract with Shanghai Urban Electric Power Investment Development Corporation (SUEP), granting SUEP a license to manufacture and market ultracapacitor products based on Maxwell’s proprietary large-cell and multi-cell module technology under its own brand in mainland China. The contract, which also obligates SUEP to source ultracapacitor electrode material exclusively from Maxwell, has a six-year term, renewable by mutual agreement.

Dr. Richard Balanson, Maxwell’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said that while Maxwell also is targeting the Chinese market with its own BOOSTCAP ultracapacitor products, the alliance with SUEP is expected to accelerate large cell ultracapacitor products’ penetration of that large and rapidly growing market and generate significant sales of Maxwell’s proprietary electrode material.

Mr. An Bao Li, SUEP’s President and Senior Economist, said that when the group recognized the large Chinese market potential for ultracapacitor products and researched potential avenues to enter the business, it identified Maxwell as the industry’s technology leader and proposed an alliance between the companies.

Balanson said that Maxwell will provide training for San Jiu personnel in cell and module assembly both at Maxwell’s manufacturing facility in San Diego, and at San Jiu’s new plant in Shanghai. He emphasized that Maxwell will continue to manufacture its proprietary ultracapacitor electrode material internally, and that the licenses and technology transfer arrangements with SUEP and San Jiu specifically exclude Maxwell’s carbon film electrode technology.

The announcement follows an earlier development, in which Maxwell Technologies announced that it had entered into a toll manufacturing alliance with Belton Technology Group, a Chinese manufacturer of precision components. Balanson said that the offshore manufacturing alliance enables the company to tap into Belton’s large existing factories, supply chain operations and 20,000-person skilled production workforce to ensure that Maxwell can ramp ultracapacitor production as required to keep pace with rapidly escalating demand. He said that Maxwell will continue to produce its proprietary carbon powder electrode material internally and deliver it to Belton plants for assembly into finished ultracapacitor cells and modules.

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