By Jiahui Huang


Contemporary Amperex Technology denied any connection to forced labor following allegations by a group of U.S. lawmakers who called for an import ban on the world's largest electric-vehicle battery maker.

The accusation is "groundless and completely false," the Chinese EV battery maker said late Friday. The company said the information cited in a June 5 letter by U.S. Congress members about its suppliers was inaccurate and misleading.

CATL said business relations with some suppliers quoted in the letter had ended long ago, and others have "absolutely no connection to forced labor or anything that violates U.S. applicable laws and regulations."

For some suppliers cited in the letter, "we have never procured any products from them and the cited information is simply wrong and misguided," it said.

The company also said it has established strict internal procurement controls to fully comply with all requirements.

Last week, a group of Republican lawmakers led by Rep. John Moolenaar, head of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Rep. Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and Sen. Marco Rubio sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Robert Silvers, calling for CATL to be added to the entity list under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

The entity list designates businesses the U.S. believes are involved in the use of forced labor from China's Xinjiang region. The U.S. effectively bans the import of all goods linked to Xinjiang under the act.

Shares in CATL fell on Friday after the lawmakers' push to block imports of the company's goods into the U.S. Its Shenzhen-listed shares fell 5.7% to 193.20 yuan ($26.66), their largest one-day drop since October 2022.


Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-10-24 0037ET