Umicore stops construction of its cathode material factory in Canada

The Belgian materials technology and recycling group Umicore wants to review its plans for a cathode material factory in Loyalist, Canada, and is putting investment in the construction on hold until further notice. The plant was originally scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2025.

Umicore announced the factory in the Canadian province of Ontario in mid-2022 and broke ground last year. In its half-year report, however, the Group now states that it is adapting its investment plans to the “new market reality.” Specifically, the company is stopping the construction of the 2.7 billion dollar cathode material plant in Canada. Originally, the new North American site in the community of Loyalist was to achieve an annual production capacity of cathode materials for around one million electric vehicles by the end of the decade. This was to be supported by generous state subsidies. Canada’s national broadcaster CBC reported that the federal government wanted to contribute up to 551 million dollars and the province up to 425 million dollars.

Umicore specifically states that the demand forecast for its battery materials has fallen sharply recently and that existing production capacities should now be utilised before investing in new ones. Based on this, the Belgian company has announced a ‘thorough review’ of its battery materials business. Umicore intends to present the results of this review at its Capital Markets Day in the first quarter of 2025. “Further customer diversification as well as openness to partnerships across Umicore’s Battery Materials value chain” will also be discussed.

Incidentally, the BMW Group is one of the customers that actually wanted to source cathode material from the new plant in Ontario. In October 2023, the car manufacturer announced Umicore as a further partner for the development of a battery supply chain in North America. The Belgian company was to supply cathode-active battery materials from Ontario to BMW’s battery cell partner AESC. The Group is currently building a battery cell production facility with an annual capacity of 30 GWh in Florence County in the US state of South Carolina, which will supply BMW with round cells for new class electric models from 2026.

cbc.ca , thestar.com, umicore.com (PDF)