Swedish battery maker Northvolt said on Tuesday that one of its entities has filed for bankruptcy protection in a Stockholm court due to its financial situation. The company’s management assured that this decision had no impact on its project in Quebec.
The process undertaken concerns the subsidiary Ett Expansion AB. It follows the announcement last September of the suspension of an expansion project in Skellefteå, Sweden, as part of a restructuring of Northvolt’s Swedish activities.
The subsidiary manages the construction project, but has no direct employees. All work on this expansion has since been suspended, the company said in a press release.
“All contacts with Ett Expansion AB will now be managed by the bankruptcy trustee. Northvolt Group continues to engage with stakeholders for continued cooperation in the ongoing operations of Northvolt Group,” the company said.
This specifies that the bankruptcy request does not concern any of the company’s other legal entities.
In September, Northvolt announced the dismissal of 1,600 employees in Sweden, or a fifth of its workforce, illustrating the financial difficulties facing the company.
The company also announced that it was pausing its cathode activities at its Skellefteå factory and that it was abandoning its cathode manufacturing project in Borlänge, also in Sweden.
Work in Quebec “progressing as planned”
Northvolt, however, assured that it maintained its commitment to the construction of a cell factory in Quebec. The company reiterated this again on Tuesday.
“I want to be clear: the recent announcement regarding the Northvolt Ett Expansion AB subsidiary in Sweden has no impact on our project in Canada. This situation concerns a specific entity in Sweden,” said Northvolt North America CEO and Northvolt co-founder Paolo Cerruti in a written statement.
He affirmed that work on the immense land straddling Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville, in Montérégie, “is progressing as planned.”
“We remain determined to contribute to the local economy with our investments and our know-how in the battery sector. We continue to work closely with our partners to guarantee the success of our project in Montérégie while Northvolt continues its strategic review,” said Mr. Cerruti.
Due to Northvolt’s new strategic directions, the form and schedule of the $7 billion project, in which Quebec and Ottawa have committed to investing $2.4 billion, could be reviewed.
The company said Tuesday it wants to focus its resources on accelerating large-scale cell production in the first fully constructed phase of Northvolt Ett. [en Suède] and on respecting commitments to its customers in the automotive sector.
