The Albanese government wants to create a battery assembly industry in Australia, as countries around the world move to reduce their reliance on China.

China currently produced some 80 per cent of the world’s batteries, a situation that throw the global supply chain into chaos when that country’s government implemented the zero COVID policy, which resulted in numerous factory closure, and reduced production across the entire tech chain.

Resources minister Madeleine King shared the government’s plans in an interview with ABC Radio NT.

“What we want to get to is creating the anodes and cathodes, all the precursors, and then some of those will be assembled in other places. But the aim is that we will end up assembling them here,” King said.

“A lot of the value-add in these processes is getting to the anode and cathode position and different partners around the world are demanding that part of the element, so they can construct the battery where they are. Because these things are heavy, they’re difficult to transport and that’s where the gigafactories are.

“Australia can play a really important role in that, and we should absolutely capitalise on each step of this pathway while we move to a full battery manufacturing industry.

“We just can’t do that overnight. So, we really have to make sure we do as much as we can, and that’s what the government is determined to do.”