On September 24, China's Huayou Group's subsidiary Youshan has entered a partnership with South Korea's LG Chem, to build a joint electric vehicle (EV) battery material plant in Morocco to diversify its portfolio.
The Morocco plant, set to start production in 2026, aims to produce 50,000 tonnes of lithium-phosphate-iron (LFP) cathode materials annually, enough to be installed in 500,000 entry-class EVs. LG Chem said LFP cathodes produced at the Morocco plant will be supplied to the North American market and could be eligible to receive subsidies from the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as Morocco is a free-trade partner with the United States. LG Chem also announced an additional investment plan with Huayou Cobalt to build a lithium conversion plant in Morocco, with the aim of starting mass production by 2025 with an annual capacity of 52,000 tonnes of lithium.
In addition, LG Chem said it plans to build two other facilities in Indonesia - a precursor plant with an annual production capacity of 50,000 tonnes and a plant to extract mixed hydroxide from nickel ore for precursor production.
Written by Alex Xie, xiehan@mysteel.com
Edited by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com