Redwood to start work on US battery materials site in $3.5bn investment

Redwood Materials plans to break ground for a cathode components processing complex in the US state of South Carolina in the first quarter of this year as part of a $3.5 billion investment in the region, the company announced on December 14.

Redwood said its ‘battery materials campus’ (pictured) outside Charleston will recycle, refine and manufacture anode and cathode components on a site spanning more than 600 acres. Initial operations are expected to start by the end of this year.

The campus will eventually produce 100GWh of cathode and anode components a year, which Redwood said is enough to power more than one million EVs. Production capacity could be expanded to “potentially several hundred GWh annually”, the Nevada-based recycler said.

The site will form part of a new manufacturing corridor from Michigan to Georgia, becoming known as America’s ‘battery belt’, where hundreds of gigawatt-hours of battery cell production capacity annually are set to be built and start operating between now and 2030.

Redwood said the move is needed because anode and cathode components are not yet produced in North America and battery cell manufacturers have to source them from a global supply chain of more than 50,000 miles.

“As a result, US battery manufacturers will spend more than $150 billion overseas on these components by 2030,” the firm said.

Charleston will be similar to Redwood’s Nevada operations in that the site will be 100% electric and will not use fossil fuels, Redwood claimed.

The Charleston project follows Redwood’s November 15 announcement that it would supply recycled materials for use in Panasonic Energy’s EV lithium ion batteries.

Recycled copper foil will be used in batteries made at Panasonic Energy of North America’s plant in Nevada starting in 2024. Recycled cathode active materials will be used in batteries manufactured at Panasonic’s new facility in Kansas starting in 2025.

Shandong Jinkeli opens R&D center, signs agreements

China’s

Shandong

Jinkeli Power Sources Technology Co opened up a new R&D building on November 10 at its headquarters in Zibo City, Shandong province.

The firm said it celebrated its 40 years of trading at the opening with the signing of strategic cooperation agreements with H&V, Yadea Group, KIJO Group, Xinfeng Group and Cane Battery. Separately, Shandong Jinkeli, became a member of the Consortium for Battery Innovation in late November.

Russia gigafactory plan is ‘first step toward batteries independence’

Russia’s prime minister Mikhail Mishustin says work has started on the first of a potential series of gigafactories as it scrambles to ramp up domestic battery manufacturing capacity for energy storage systems and EVs, after foreign investors and partners quit the country over the war with Ukraine.

Mishustin told a meeting of deputy prime ministers on December 26 that Russia had to achieve “technological sovereignty” for the automotive industry in particular — and stateowned corporation Rosatom had started building a 4GWh lithium ion batteries plant in the Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad.

The plant should start operations in 2025.

“We will need to create conditions for saturating the domestic market with cars, while many foreign corporations have left Russia under pressure from their authorities, and to create our own components base with the widest possible range, from the simplest parts to complex elements,” Mishustin said.

Russia must also “create an infrastructure for charging stations” for EVs, he said.

Rosatom announced on November 23 that it had established a new subsidiary — Renera — dedicated to the manufacture of energy storage systems.

Lithium ion batteries are already being produced by Rosatom, but the group said Renera’s task would be to coordinate and expand manufacturing capacity and “consider” building additional gigafactories.

Kaliningrad, which lies between Poland and Lithuania, does not border mainland Russia but is home to Russia’s Baltic fleet. Rosatom says the Ka- liningrad gigafactory will produce 50,000 EV batteries annually.

US-based battery producer EnerSys announced last March that it was suspending its operations in Russia following the country’s “illegal military action against a sovereign Ukraine”.

Last April, Energy Storage Journal reported that tougher new EU proposals to restrict trade with Russia were likely to include exports of lead batteries and related battery tech products and services.

Lithium battery systems manufacturer BMZ Group said on September 15 it intended to acquire a stake in German plastics supplier Schütz Kunststofftechnik, in part to shore up its materials supply chain.

BMZ said it would act as a strategic investor in supporting its supplier of battery cell holders.

The planned deal would give Schütz access to BMZ’s network of clients, including those in the energy storage and e-mobility sectors.

Schütz is a longstanding supplier of cell holders and spacers installed in BMZ battery systems.

BMZ founder and CEO Sven Bauer said: “Procurement bottlenecks, price developments and a shortage of skilled workers means we are in very challenging economic times. At the same time, our market is a future-proof growth industry.”

Strategic partnerships that enable BMZ to secure and expand its market presence “are only logical”, he said.

Schütz managing partner Michael Schütz said the investment deal was “a door opener for new sales markets, across industries and worldwide”