The project, which is located in Kotka city in southeast Finland, will be developed in partnership with Finnish Minerals' wholly-owned subsidiary Finnish Battery Chemicals. The two parties will establish a joint venture Easpring Finland New Materials to operate this project. Easpring will hold 70pc of the joint venture and Finnish Battery Chemicals 30pc.
The facility is designed to produce nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) 811 and nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA), with a 60,000 t/yr capacity for the first phase of this project. The developers will also design the capacity so that it can switch to producing NCM523 and NCM622 at the plant.
The whole project is scheduled for completion in 34 months, with more details including the capacity for the remaining phases undisclosed. Total investment will be up to €774mn ($850mn).
"Demand for high-end lithium-ion battery cathode materials continues to increase, with continuous involvement of the overseas new energy markets, particularly in Europe. We aim to further accelerate the company's international strategic layout, promote overseas business development, and meet demand from the overseas battery supply chains," Easpring said.
A growing number of Chinese firms in the battery supply chain have invested in overseas production projects to diversify resource origins and meet market entry conditions to the US required by the Inflation Reduction Act and to cope with restrictions on key battery materials in the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act.
Argus assessed the costs for battery cathode NCM811 down by 6.4pc from a week earlier to $49.66/kWh on 8 August, while NCM523 and NCM622 cathode active material fell by 5.9pc to $50.14/kWh and by 5.7pc to $50.21/kWh, respectively.
