A view of CATL headquarters in Ningde, East China's Fujian Province Photo: VCG
Shares of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) hit the daily trading maximum of 10 percent on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Monday, and closed at about 224 yuan ($31.99), a new record high.
The company's market capitalization reaches a staggering 495 billion yuan now.
The gain followed a media report that CATL will supply batteries to Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai. Approached, CATL declined to comment to the Global Times.
Established in 2011, Fujian-based CATL's business covers the research and development, production, and sales of new-energy vehicle power battery systems and energy storage systems.
Globally, CATL ranked top in the EV battery production in 2019 with a 27.9-percent market share, according to South Korea's market tracker SNE Research.
It was followed by Japan's Panasonic Corp with a 24.1-percent market share and South Korea's LG Chemical with a 10.5-percent market share, China's BYD comes next with 9.5 percent.
In February this year, CATL said that it intended to sign an agreement with Tesla and Tesla (Shanghai) to supply lithium-ion power battery products to Tesla.
In May, CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun said the company and Tesla's technical team had been in communication. The estimated delivery time is about the second half of this year.
On Friday, CATL said Japan's Honda Motor Co will buy a 1-percent stake in the company and the two will jointly develop EV batteries.
Honda will launch its first EV using CATL's batteries in China in 2022, and it will expand the partnership.