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Easpring Finland New Materials Oy received a grant of €115 million ($122 million) from Business Finland to support the construction of its cathode active material (CAM) factory in Kotka, southeastern Finland, the company said on Thursday.
CAM is a powdered material required to produce new lithium-ion batteries. But Europe lacks operational capacity for this key step, with the overwhelming majority of global supply currently produced in China.
Once operational, the material produced in Kotka will be used by battery manufacturers in Europe and around the world, according to the company.
After ramping-up to its full production capacity of 60,000 tonnes per year, it will supply cathode material for lithium batteries of approximately 750,000 electric vehicles (EVs) annually, depending on the vehicles’ battery sizes, the company said.
Established in March 2024, Easpring Finland New Materials is a joint venture of which China’s Beijing Easpring Material Technology owns 70% and Finnish Minerals Group owns 30%.
A major project intended for the production of precursor cathode active material (pCAM), owned by Chinese giant CNGR Advanced Material and Finnish Minerals Group, was put on hold in April after CNGR pulled out of the deal “due to a challenging market situation.”
Business Finland has also given a grant of €84.6 million to Fortum Battery Recycling for an expansion of its hydrometallurgical battery recycling facility in Harjavalta, southwestern Finland, the recycler said on Thursday.
Fortum recovers critical metals from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, battery scrap and black mass, producing recycled nickel, cobalt and manganese sulphates, as well as lithium hydroxide, it said.
With current capacity for 3,000 tpy of black mass processing, the facility is Europe’s largest operating closed-loop hydrometallurgical battery recycling facility, the company said.
But with the investment, the possible expansion would increase the capacity to as much as 28,000 tpy. This would significantly boost European capacity for processing critical battery materials, Fortum said.
Despite the investment and the Harjavalta facility receiving approval for support under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) in March, Fortum continues to weigh options. These may include selling its battery recycling business.
“Battery Recycling is part of the strategic review of Fortum’s Circular Solutions businesses. Fortum continues to assess options, including partnerships and a change of ownership, of this business,” it said on Thursday.
As a domestic consumer of black mass, Fortum is having to compete with rising European black mass payables. This is due to strong demand and higher prices in key export markets such as South Korea, according to market sources.
While local consumer bids for NCM black mass were heard this week at payables around 50-60% ex-works Europe for nickel and cobalt, producers able to get notifications to export materials to South Korea can achieve around 70% ex-works on the same basis, according to market sources.
Fastmarkets’ assessments of the black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, domestic, exw Europe, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end), and the black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, domestic, exw Europe, % payable LME nickel cash official price, were both 67-72% on July 9, up week on week by 2 percentage points from 65-70%.
Fastmarkets’ interactive gigafactory map demonstrates the breadth and depth of our data on the global electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chain. Explore our Gigafactory Capacity Database