One person was killed and six were seriously injured in an explosion at a factory in China operated by a subsidiary of battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., authorities said Friday.
Thursday’s blast happened in a workshop belonging to Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology in the city of Ningxiang, in the southern province of Hunan, the city government said on its official Weibo account.
Fourteen people with minor injuries were among those taken to the hospital, but none were in a life-threatening condition, it added.
Brunp said it had doused a blaze following the explosion, caused by waste aluminum foil catching fire.
In a statement, it apologized for the impact of the accident, offered condolences to victims and their families and vowed to ensure safe production.
CATL said in a statement the incident would have limited impact on overall production and operations.
In a note, Daiwa Capital Markets said the factory was an old one, with annual production capacity of 15,000 tons of cathode precursors for CATL’s lithium-ion batteries, although Brunp also had a newer and much larger plant.
