Suomen Malmijalostus said in November 2021 that he would negotiate with the Chinese Beijing Easpring Material Technologyn with about establishing a factory producing cathodic active material in Kotka. Cathode active material is a powdery end product that is used in cell factories to manufacture the most valuable part of a battery cell, the cathode.
The parties have now agreed to establish a joint venture by the end of 2023, of which Beijing Easpring Material Technology owns 70 percent and Suomen Malmijalostus 30 percent.
“Beijing Easpring is the world’s leading manufacturer of cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. The establishment of a joint venture shows that, in the opinion of both parties, the Kotka mill has an excellent opportunity to succeed on the European market in both the short and long term,” says the CEO of Suomen Malmijalostus. Matti Hietanen in the bulletin.
Founded in 2001, Beijing Easpring is a lithium-ion battery cathode material developer, manufacturer and supplier listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2010. The company has production facilities in Changzhou and Haimen, Jiangsu Province, and Panzhihua, Sichuan Province. The company is actively preparing for global expansion and now it is becoming the first Chinese producer of cathode materials to invest in Europe.
The Kotka factory project will next move to a more detailed project planning and approval phase, where the joint venture prepares to submit, among other things, applications for the factory’s construction and environmental permits. Preparatory work in the Keltakallio industrial area already started at the end of 2021, and work related to the leveling and preparation of the site will continue in the summer of 2023.
The size of the factory’s initial investment is approximately 774 million euros, and the planned production covers the cathode material needs of more than 750,000 fully electric cars each year. It is possible to expand the factory’s production capacity in the future. The factory employs approximately 360 people and promotes the region’s economy in many industries already during the construction phase through direct effects and the multiplier effects of production and consumption.