Ford secures nickel for electric car batteries from Indonesia. The carmaker is investing with mining company PT Vale Indonesia and Chinese company Huayou Cobalt in a nickel processing plant in Pomalaa in Southeast Sulawesi, where Vale operates a nickel mine.
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The USA and Japan have signed a trade agreement on minerals for electric vehicle batteries. This will allow Japanese car manufacturers broader access to the US market and subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act.
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After the US and the EU announced in mid-March that they wanted to negotiate an agreement on critical minerals for electric car batteries, the US government now submitted a concept paper for a transatlantic raw materials partnership to the EU Commission.
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US battery recycler Cirba Solutions is investing $300 mn in a new recycling factory in South Carolina. The company, which counts GM among its customers, plans to start construction near Columbia in Richland County this year and begin operations by the end of 2024.
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Mercedes-Benz has agreed to cooperate with CATL subsidiary Brunp in China to recycle electric car batteries. Brunp says it already works with Volvo, BMW, FAW-Volkswagen and GAC-Toyota, among others, in the area of battery recycling.
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The US speciality chemicals company Cabot has announced the establishment of a technology centre in Germany. With the centre in Münster, Cabot wants to focus on technical cooperation with customers to accelerate the development of its battery materials products in Europe.
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Battery recycling company Li-Cycle has received a conditional commitment from the US Department of Energy for a 375 million dollar loan. The money will be used for the Canadian company’s first US facility in Rochester, New York, USA.
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The commodity trader Trafigura says it uncovered a systematic fraud with damages of more than half a billion US dollars. Supposed nickel deliveries from companies owned by Indian businessman Prateek Gupta did not contain nickel but only inferior material.
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In Europe, the materials technology and recycling group Umicore and the Finnish state mining company Terrafame have signed a long-term supply agreement for nickel sulphate. According to both companies, deliveries have already started and are to be increased further in the course of this year.
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The Australian battery materials company EV Metals Group has secured 127 hectares of land in Saudi Arabia to build a battery chemicals processing complex. Production of lithium hydroxide at the plant located in Yanbu Industrial City is scheduled to start in 2026.
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Germany’s chemical corporation BASF and French miner Eramet are finalising a $2.6 billion deal to process nickel in Indonesia, country officials said. The report comes amidst Indonesia wooing international industry to invest in its resources for use in EV batteries.
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Car company Stellantis and Finnish state-owned mining company Terrafame have signed a supply agreement for nickel sulfate to be used in batteries for electric cars. Starting in 2025, Terrafame will supply nickel sulfate to Stellantis during the five-year term of the agreement.
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SK Innovation and the recycling specialist SungEel HiTech want to launch a battery recycling joint venture in Korea. Both sides have just signed a letter of intent. The joint venture is to be founded next year.
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Canadian battery developer Nano One and Belgian materials technology group Umicore announce the signing of a non-exclusive agreement to jointly develop production process technologies for lithium-ion battery active cathode materials.
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The South Korean chemical company LG Chem has invested 24 billion won (approx. 17.6 million euros) in Jae Young Tech, a battery recycling specialist also based in South Korea. However, the joint plans mainly relate to North America.
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The European Parliament and the member states have reached a preliminary agreement on the revision of the EU regulations for batteries. The background to the regulation is the proposals presented by the EU Commission at the end of 2020 on mandatory sustainability criteria for batteries.
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In its current analysis of battery prices, BloombergNEF has recorded the first increase since the start of the evaluations in 2010. The experts attribute this to the increased prices for raw materials and battery components as well as high inflation.
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The South Korean battery cell manufacturer SK On is building a nickel supply chain in Indonesia together with two partners. Through a joint venture, the partners want to secure raw materials there and process them into intermediate products. In the end, however, the material could end up in SK On’s US-American battery plants.
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General Motors has agreed with Vale Canada on a long-term supply of nickel for its electric car batteries. Vale is to supply 25,000 tonnes of battery-grade nickel sulphate annually from the second half of 2026.
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MAN Truck & Bus is working on an after-use strategy for its batteries. The manufacturer is currently drawing up an action protocol for this. In parallel, MAN has launched a project to test used MAN vehicle batteries in stationary storage facilities.
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After the US Department of Energy announced funding of almost three billion US dollars for the development of a national battery supply chain in February, things are now getting concrete: 20 companies have been selected to receive a total of 2.8 billion US dollars for the construction and expansion of factories in twelve states.
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General Motors is looking to secure a new source of low-cost nickel and cobalt for its Ultium battery cells with a strategic investment in Australian battery materials supplier Queensland Pacific Metals.
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Stellantis has signed a non-binding agreement with GME Resources for the purchase of nickel and cobalt sulphate products from the NiWest project in Western Australia. The NiWest project is not yet in operation and a final decision has yet to be made.
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The specialty chemicals group Evonik wants to make the recycling of lithium from drive batteries of electric vehicles easier, more economical and more environmentally friendly. The ceramic membrane process developed for this purpose should be ready for the market in three to five years.
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Munich-based startup Tozero, which specializes in recycling lithium-ion batteries, has raised €3.5 million in a pre-seed round. According to the company, it developed a novel process to recover critical materials from batteries. The funds will be used to build a prototype plant.
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Honda has entered into a strategic partnership with the Japanese trading company Hanwa to ensure stable procurement of battery materials required for its longer-term electric offensive. The agreement centres around nickel, cobalt and lithium in particular.
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According to media reports, during German Chancellor Scholz’s visit to Canada, Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz signed agreements with the Canadian government to secure access to crucial battery raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt.
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Tesla has signed contracts worth around US$5 billion to buy materials for its batteries from nickel-processing companies in Indonesia, according to a senior Indonesian cabinet minister.
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Ford has confirmed it is currently negotiating several partnerships to secure most of the nickel it needs until 2026 and beyond. Ford has also signed several important contracts for the procurement of lithium.
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The Swedish industrial group Epiroc has received a major order from Glencore for battery-electric equipment for a nickel and copper mine in Canada. The mine is scheduled to come on stream in 2024.
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