800-MN-Euro battery factory that is being built in Finland
A company Chinese-Finn announced on Thursday that it would start in April with building a battery material factory in Finland, the first of its kind in the Nordic country.
The factory will produce Cathode Active Material, an important component in lithium ion batteries used in electric vehicles and for energy storage, said Easpring Finland New Materials, a company co-ownership of the Finnish Minerals Group and Beijing Easpring Material Technology.
It said that the investment was worth 800 million euros ($ 868 million).
The announcement came a week after a bankruptcy request by the Swedish battery maker Northvolt, who was planning to develop the production of cathode, but dropped those plans to concentrate on the production of battery cells while the moisture to survive.
Easpring Finland new materials said that commercial production would be expected in 2027.
The factory, which is located in Kotka in Southeast Finland, will initially produce 60,000 tons of cathode -active material annually.
With the full production capacity, the cathode material can deliver for the production of around 750,000 electric vehicles per year, the company said.
Matti Hietanen, the Chief Executive of the Finnish Minerals Group, said that the investment has created a “whole new type of industry in Finland with regard to the production of Lithium-ionbatteries” and represented a European “spear project for the industry”.
The new factory will employ 270 people and an area of approximately 80 hectares was reserved for its construction.
