Chinese electric vehicle battery maker CALB is reportedly withdrawing job offers to fresh college graduates who signed contracts late last year to join the company full-time this summer, Caixin reported. The company attributed the move to “changing market conditions” as it attempts to address customer demand.
Why it matters: The decision by Hong Kong-listed CALB, China’s third-biggest battery maker by volume, reflects growing pressure in the world’s biggest auto market as fierce competition and concerns of a slowdown have seeped into the EV supply chain.
Details: At least five “class of 2023” graduates who signed employment contracts with CALB were told the battery maker had rescinded its offers, according to Caixin. Having signed up in October 2022, the students were due to start work in July, but have now instead received a payment of RMB 3,000 ($424) in compensation.
The company said the move was necessary to ensure it could adapt to new circumstances in light of “chances and challenges going forward” in the EV industry.
All of the company’s seven manufacturing facilities in China have taken back some of their job offers to fresh graduates, according to Caixin.
The report did not say how many of the firm’s graduate hires were affected but that hundreds of people had started chats on messaging platform QQ to share information.
CALB did not immediately respond to TechNode’s request for comment.
Context: CALB’s shares slipped 6.8% to HKD 17.1 on Monday following a 4.28% fall on May 26, taking its market capitalization to HKD 30.3 billion ( $3.9 billion), down more than 50% from last October, when the company went public in a HKD 10.1 billion deal in Hong Kong.
CALB mainly focuses on the Chinese market, with overseas revenue only accounting for 1.5% of its total last year.
CALB generated RMB 20.4 billion in revenue in 2022, triple its revenue from the previous year. A major supplier to Chinese carmakers GAC and Xpeng Motors, CALB is the third-largest battery maker in China.
Manufacturers in China collectively sold the equivalent of 25.1 gigawatt hours (GWh) of batteries in April, representing a 9.5% decline month-on-month, according to figures released by China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance (CIBIA).
