China's CATL says small impact from battery plant blaze, no casualties

BEIJING (Reuters) -China's CATL said a "relatively small" number of products were affected by a fire at its battery factory in southeastern Fujian province and the impact on production and operations was expected to be limited.

CATL said there were no casualties in the incident, which occurred in the city of Ningde at noon on Sunday and was still under investigation, in a reply to Reuters.

"The product volume affected is relatively small, and the impact to CATL's overall production operation is relatively small," the company said.

CATL is the world's largest battery maker and counts Tesla as its biggest client. It has been known for a high product reliability and production yield with its unique manufacturing techniques and management.

The plant, which local media said is situated in one of CATL's core battery production bases called "Z base", is among the firm's newer and more advanced production lines just 10 minutes away from its headquarters.

Local media reported that the fire was put out at 10:20 p.m.

In June, a fire at South Korean lithium battery maker Aricell's plant killed 23 people, which police blamed on a rush to produce batteries to meet a deadline without addressing signs of quality failures.

(Reporting by Zoey Zhang, Liz Lee and Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Kim Coghill)