Metacon has, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Metacon Technology AB, signed a supplementary agreement to the existing OEM license and manufacturing agreement with PERIC Hydrogen Technologies Co., Ltd. The supplementary agreement gives Metacon the right, based on the existing license agreement, to also manufacture the so-called "stacks", which are the central modules in the electrolysis systems where water is split into oxygen and H₂. At the same time, this opens a completely new and potentially very large and long-term business for Metacon in the aftermarket, as these stacks are designed to be able to be picked out and undergo regeneration at a cost-optimized time for each customer. The Supplementary Agreement also extends the term of the first phase of the overall license from five to eight years from the start of production. PERIC has never before entered a similar partnership with any actor inside or outside China.

As previously communicated, Metacon has an ongoing project to be able to manufacture, quality assure and sell its own electrolysis plants with pressurized stacks to the part of the industrial sector that has begun to invest in its own large-scale fossil-free H₂ production. The new supplementary agreement complements Metacon's strategy, which aims to create a unique and world-leading technology portfolio for all significant ways of producing fossil-free green H₂, including decentralized reforming where we already own technology and are developing other products for the production of the same green H₂ independent of the electricity grid.

PERIC is the original H₂ research and development institute in China and has over 60 years of experience. They are one of the companies in the world that invests the most in research, development and production in the clean H₂ space and will reach about 6.5 GW in their own production capacity in China by 2025.

PERIC is a market leader in large, pressurized stacks and has, in addition to the 5 MW version, also launched a 10 MW and recently a 15 MW stack, which is the largest in the world today. This is expected to be a significant competitive advantage, especially for customers with very large production needs, such as in refineries, fossil-free steel, green fertilizers, green ammonia and so-called electrofuels such as "eMethanol" for shipping. This is because economies of scale, cost-efficiency and simplification in layout for the plants can be achieved.

Under the partnership with PERIC, Metacon will be able to build its own complete electrolysis plants under its own name and brand, initially with core components from PERIC. Metacon will carry out the adaptations necessary to meet all European requirements and manufacturing standards and ensure that large parts of the electrolysis plants can be built with local components in order to maximize sustainability aspects and create a strong offering to the European market and probably also outside Europe, as PERIC has announced a desire to be able to allocate capacity to Metacon on a case-by-case basis. The collaboration with PERIC and the opportunity to initially purchase core components from PERIC gives Metacon the conditions to get started with manufacturing relatively quickly with limited investments in this context.

"I am extremely happy and proud to announce that we are now further strengthening our partnership with PERIC and providing ourselves and PERIC with the conditions to be able to build a highly competitive European production of one of the world's most proven and cost-effective electrolysis platforms for the first time in history," commented Christer Wikner, President and CEO, Metacon.