New Delhi, July 7 -- Sicona Battery Technologies, an Australian battery materials maker backed by India's Himadri Speciality Chemical Ltd, has secured a non-repayable grant of up to AUD 45 million (about $31.2 million, or roughly Rs 297 crore at current exchange rates) from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to build its first commercial scale silicon-carbon anode manufacturing facility, the company said this week.
Sicona's SiCx material is designed to replace or supplement conventional graphite anodes in lithium-ion cells. The company says the material can lift battery energy density by more than 20% and cut charging time by over 40%, while remaining compatible with existing lithium-ion production lines.
ARENA's funding is a capital grant, not debt or equity infusion. It is being delivered under ARENA's Battery Breakthrough Initiative, a AUD 500-plus-million government programme that typically requires recipients to match ARENA's contribution with their own cash or in-kind co-funding.
The grant will fund a plant in the Illawarra region of New South Wales that is expected to produce up to 230 tonnes a year of Sicona's SiCx anode material for customer qualification and early commercial sales.
Sicona and BlueScope Steel Ltd have signed an exclusivity agreement to assess developing the facility within BlueScope's Port Kembla industrial precinct, near Wollongong.
The Illawarra project, part of a roughly AUD 100 million (about $69.4 million) push, is a nearer-term step in a larger expansion plan: Sicona is separately working toward a 6,500-tonne-a-year commercial plant, with longer-term ambitions of scaling up to 26,500 tonne capacity annually.
"ARENA's support is a major endorsement of Sicona's technology, our team, and Australia's ability to build globally relevant battery materials manufacturing capability," said Christiaan Jordaan, founder and chief executive of Sicona.
Himadri's investment
The ARENA award comes a little over a year after Sicona struck a licensing and strategic partnership with Himadri Speciality Chemical, the Kolkata-headquartered specialty carbon and chemicals producer, in May 2025. Himadri owned around 15% stake in Sicona in June 2025 and recently bought another tranche of Sicona's compulsorily convertible notes (CCNs) which could raise Himadri's stake in the battery-materials maker to 24%.
For Himadri, which has been building out a battery materials business alongside its legacy carbon black and coal-tar pitch operations, the Sicona stake is one of several bets on the electric-vehicle and energy-storage supply chain, as the company looks to move up the value chain from commodity carbon products toward higher-margin battery materials.
Beyond electric vehicles, Sicona said it is developing SiCx for use in AI data centres, power tools, defence equipment and robotics, which are the markets it believes that are driving some of the fastest-growing near-term demand for high-performance battery materials.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.