Pakistan’s HUBCO plans to enter lithium mining, battery manufacturing

Hub Power Company Limited (HUBCO), Pakistan’s largest Independent Power Producer (IPP), has announced plans to enter the mining sector for the exploration of lithium and develop a battery manufacturing unit.

The company shared its plans during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Monday, said brokerage house Arif Habib Limited (AHL), which attended the AGM.

“A Reserves Report is currently being prepared to assess the potential, with the current work expected to take 12-18 months,” read AHL’s briefing takeaways.

“Preparations are being made by the company to be well-equipped for the long-term demand for batteries,” it added.

Lithium is a mineral mostly used for rechargeable batteries, called Lithium-ion batteries, for mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras and, crucially, EVs.

Moreover, HUBCO informed its stakeholders that plans are underway to establish an Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturing plant with “a capacity to produce 50,000 EVs annually with 30% to 40% of the output designated for export to Australia and Africa”.

As per AHL’s report, HUBCO anticipates to launch completely knocked down (CKD) cars “across 8-9 variants in different segments, by Dec’25-Mar 26”.

Last month, Chinese company BYD, a global leader in electric vehicles and renewable energy solutions, entered the Pakistani market in collaboration with Hub Power Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of HUBCO.

BYD announced its strategic collaboration with Pakistan partner Mega Conglomerate (Private) Limited in March.

In June, HUBCO announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary (Hub Power Holdings) – through its associated company Mega Motor Company (Private) Limited – is entering into a new line of business in EVs with BYD Auto Industry Company Limited.

The IPP saw its profit increase by over 21% to Rs75.29 billion in fiscal year 2023-24 that ended June 30. Earnings per share (EPS) increased to Rs53.98 in the period under review compared to Rs44.37 in the same period last year (SPLY).

HUBCO has a combined installed power generation capacity of 3,581 MW. The IPP through its subsidiaries operates in various business sectors including oil and gas, mining and industrial operations and maintenance services.