In April 2026, Lanxi Zhide New Energy Materials Co., Ltd. (“Zhide New Energy”) officially commissioned the second production line at its integrated silane–silicon-carbon gas-phase deposition factory. The facility has a total designed capacity of 8,000 tonnes per year, with 3,000 tpa now operational — and that capacity has already been locked in by leading consumer electronics and power battery clients. The commissioning marks a decisive step in scaling high-end silicon-carbon anode material from laboratory to full industrial production across the critical dimensions of consistency, safety, and cost control.
As the industry’s first mass-production line using 500 kg-class deposition coating equipment, the first integrated silane–silicon-carbon production line, and the first line built and commissioned within a chemical industrial park to full petrochemical safety standards, this project is not only a milestone for Zhide New Energy but signals that China now possesses globally leading industrialisation capability in next-generation lithium battery core materials.
Commissioning: A “Counter-Intuitive Gamble” That Reset Industry Standards
In April 2026, Zhide New Energy’s new silicon-carbon anode production line in Lanxi, Zhejiang officially entered operation. Rewinding to three years ago, when the Zhide team first proposed building a “kilotonne-class large-equipment mass-production line,” virtually no one in the industry believed it could succeed.
At the time, the products of a U.S.-based gas-phase silicon deposition company were delivering impressive test results at several leading Chinese cell makers and had attracted backing from Porsche, ATL, BASF, SK Global, Microsoft, and U.S. carbon-neutrality funds — earning the company the title of “next-generation silicon king.” However, due to technical barriers in deposition equipment and process, that U.S. company has still not achieved mass production at even the hundred-tonne scale.
For years, the silicon-carbon anode industry commonly used small 20 kg and 100 kg-class equipment. The prevailing wisdom held that “the larger the equipment, the harder it is to control flow and temperature fields and to guarantee batch consistency,” and that “larger equipment means higher safety risks and greater difficulty in stable line operation.” Zhide New Energy chose to challenge precisely that consensus.
An even greater challenge lay ahead. Silane, the core feedstock for gas-phase silicon-carbon, had long been procured externally, bringing high transport costs, unstable supply, and volatile pricing. To resolve this “bottleneck,” the company decided to build its own silane production line for full vertical integration — meaning they had to not only master equipment scale-up but also cross into the chemical engineering domain: a path no domestic peer had ever walked.
Three years later, the industry is rapidly phasing out small equipment due to cost and performance constraints, and Zhide’s “counter-intuitive” production line is proving the company’s original thesis to the market.
This is the industry’s first mass-production line using 500 kg-class deposition coating equipment. Dozens of independently developed large-scale units run stably with precise flow and temperature field control, delivering intra-batch uniformity far exceeding that of small equipment, while substantially reducing unit production costs.
This is the industry’s first integrated silane–silicon-carbon production line. Silane output is piped directly into the silicon-carbon production stage, eliminating hazardous-material transport risk entirely and comprehensively upgrading supply chain stability.
This is the industry’s first production line commissioned within a chemical park and built to petrochemical standards, importing the mature process safety, process control, and quality systems from the chemical sector into new materials manufacturing — reducing safety and scale-up risk at source.
Company Background: Eight Years of Deep Cultivation
Zhide New Energy was founded in 2018, with its headquarters and main factory in Lanxi City, Zhejiang Province. From inception, the company has focused on R&D and industrialisation of high-end silicon anode materials. Its core shareholders include IDG Capital, CITIC Metal (Jin Shi), CMB International, Huawei, CATL, and SAIC Motor — a roster spanning both leading industry and capital players.
On technology pathways, Zhide has consistently pursued a “high performance, high quality” line: for silicon oxide, it chose the pre-lithiation route; for silicon-carbon, it committed to the resin-based porous carbon scaffold route — making “difficult yet correct” product choices to create long-term value for downstream customers.
The company has repeatedly achieved industry firsts: in 2021, pre-lithiated silicon oxide anode achieved vehicle-grade deployment, making Zhide the first domestic company to put high-end silicon anode into cars; in 2023, gas-phase silicon-carbon anode material was deployed in vehicles, continuing its lead. In high-end consumer electronics, the company holds over 80% market share in silicon-carbon anode, ranking first in the industry.
As the industry’s first company to scale up silane gas-phase deposition equipment, its 500 kg-class units are now stably shipping product to power battery clients. As the first to pursue full supply-chain vertical integration, Zhide independently develops and manufactures both the key precursor silane and core equipment. The company is also the first whose gas-phase silicon-carbon mass-production products meet automotive power battery requirements for consistency, uniformity, quality control, capacity, and cost.
Industry Outlook: Porous Carbon, Silane Supply, and Equipment Evolution
Porous Carbon
Resin-based porous carbon is gradually becoming mainstream in consumer electronics, while the power battery segment is expected to evolve long-term toward polymer and coke-based substrates. Current commercial production centres on biomass-type coconut shell-based and polymer-type resin-based materials, with future development trending toward polymers and novel substrates.
Silane Supply
Self-built integrated silane capacity is becoming an inevitable choice for leading companies. Large-scale silane transport carries high cost and risk; proximal pipeline delivery is the solution. Current silane is not fully optimised for silicon-carbon anode applications; the future will see purpose-built silane grades, with elemental doping as a key technical development direction. Companies with chemical engineering backgrounds and integration capabilities will build moats in supply chain security and cost control.
Equipment Development
Single-unit scaling is the future trend. Industry equipment has evolved from 20 kg-class to hundred-kilogram class, and in 2026 the 200–500 kg range is becoming mainstream. A “counter-intuitive” industry consensus is forming: scaling up deposition equipment does not sacrifice product consistency but, through more precise flow and temperature field control, actually improves intra-batch uniformity and inter-batch stability.
From Technical Leadership to Industrialisation
Silicon-carbon anode material is widely regarded as the key to breaking through the energy density ceiling of next-generation lithium batteries. From consumer electronics to power batteries, from humanoid robots to electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, its application frontiers continue to expand.
At this inflection point of accelerating material system iteration, Zhide New Energy is leveraging nearly a decade of technical accumulation and the industry’s first integrated silane gas-phase silicon-carbon production line to accomplish the leap from “technical leadership” to “industrialisation leadership.” Through a “materials + chemical engineering” dual-engine strategy — self-building silane, self-manufacturing resin-based porous carbon, independently developing large-scale core equipment, and deepening supplier partnerships — the company has constructed systematic advantages in the high-performance silicon-carbon anode space.
Looking ahead, Zhide New Energy will continue to explore “uncharted technological territory” under the philosophy of “doing what is difficult yet correct,” providing the global lithium battery industry with higher-performance, higher-quality, and safer silicon-carbon anode solutions — with the ambition of becoming a globally competitive technology-driven materials company.
Source: Shimo Shixun (石墨时讯), “负极黑马全球首条一体化气相硬碳产线正式投运”, republished via WeChat, 21 April 2026.
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