A pilot plant for recycling electric vehicle batteries
Eramet announced on Thursday the suspension of its battery recycling plant project in Dunkirk (North) because the conditions for its development are not met in the current state of the European market.
The French mining group, which also presented its quarterly results, decided to suspend this project “due to the lack of ramp-up of battery factories and their components in Europe”.
“(…) there are today strong uncertainties, both on the supply of raw materials to the factory, and on the outlets for metal salts resulting from recycling”, he added in a press release.
According to Christel Bories, general director of Eramet, “the value chain in Europe is having a lot of trouble getting started”.
“There are no manufacturers of cathode precursors (materials needed to make electric batteries) in Europe,” she told reporters during a call on the results.
The automotive sector is witnessing a slowdown in demand for electric vehicles after several years of growth and is facing fierce competition from China.
In September, Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt had to suspend production of active cathode materials at its Northvolt Ett gigafactory in northern Sweden due to the state of the sector.
For Christel Bories, “it does not make sense to recycle products in Europe to sell them in Asia”.
Questioned by franceinfo about the suspension of the Eramet project, the Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher wanted to be reassuring by reminding that it was not abandoned but just suspended.
Eramet also announced on Thursday the purchase of the entire minority stake (49.9%) of its Chinese partner Tsingshan in Eramine Sudamerica, a lithium carbonate factory located in Argentina.
(Written by Kate Entringer, with Gus Trompiz, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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