Even though it was dinnertime on a weekday in early May, Zhang Yuping, vice-president of GEM Co Ltd, still talked with his colleagues on the phone about the progress of transporting a batch of used power batteries from new energy vehicles－which were bought from a large-scale State-owned enterprise in Zhuzhou, Hunan province－to its waste recycling and new energy material parks in Loudi, another city in the central province.