BASF’s electric vehicle battery manufacturing and recycling plant project in Bécancour, planned for 2025, is leaking. The German chemical group is now looking throughout North America to find “the best place” to launch its project.
“I would say I’m a lot less optimistic today. Much, much less optimistic than I was when the announcement was made [en mars 2022] », affirmed to the Duty the CAQ member for Nicolet-Bécancour, Donald Martel.
BASF has reserved land of one and a half million square meters in the Bécancour industrial park for its factory project. “That’s why I can’t wait for them to decide: because it’s an area that may be attractive to others,” Mr. Martel argued in an interview. There are winning conditions in the Bécancour industrial park and it is attracting a lot of interest from many businesses,” he added.
According to the information that MP Martel obtained, BASF failed to find an automotive partner to launch its project. The German company refuses to confirm this information. In a succinct response, spokesperson Marlena Mista wrote to Duty that “BASF continues to evaluate where in North America would be best to create a hub for cathode active materials and battery recycling.”
Mme Mista also did not respond to a question about the plant’s planned commissioning in 2025. “BASF is committed to supporting North American producers in their transition to electric mobility and increasing their presence in the production of materials for batteries,” she simply wrote.
“Well established”?
The BASF project in Bécancour was expected to lead to the production of 100,000 tonnes of battery cathode materials per year. In a press release published last May, the Quebec government included BASF in its list of “companies already well established” in the “energy transition valley innovation zone”, deployed between Bécancour, Trois-Rivières and Shawinigan.
Five months later, after the publication of a short text from Radio-Canada reporting the project’s difficulties, Minister Fitzgibbon told The Canadian Press that the BASF project was “for the moment, on the ice “. He added that he was not “tormented” by this news. “In terms of cathodes, I am very satisfied with what we have,” he declared. Following BASF, General Motors (GM) and Ford both announced that they have formed consortia with Korean battery manufacturers with the aim of launching cathode active material factories.
To date, “the Ministry of the Economy, Innovation and Energy and Investissement Québec [IQ] have not provided any financial assistance to this company,” the ministry confirmed on Monday. As of September, the government and IQ had funded 12 projects related to the battery sector, to the tune of $15.3 billion. BASF was not one of them.
Asked for this article, the Bécancour Industrial and Port Park Company (SPIBB) said it was unable to comment on the project due to the contract that binds it to BASF. “It is not the SPIPB’s responsibility to report on the progress of its tenants’ projects,” declared Carolyne Bouffard, administrative services assistant.
A “key partner”?
Asked by The duty, the office of the federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, has for its part chosen to discuss a “potential investment”, still at the study stage. The German giant remains in contact with the government, said Mr. Champagne’s office, which says “continues[r] to build a strong ecosystem for electric vehicles with many industry players.” The federal government has not invested at all in the adventure with BASF, confirmed the minister’s communications director, Laurie Bouchard.
The conclusion of an agreement between SPIBB and BASF was announced in March 2022. At the time, Minister Champagne wrote on the social network
.@BASF_Catalysts will be a key partner in the ???? ecosystem At ???????? and will power EVs across North America.
With their talents and skills, workers ???????? will be leaders in our green transformation.
This is a first step, lots more to come!
— François-Philippe Champagne (FPC) ???????? (@FP_Champagne) March 4, 2022
Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon also welcomed this “ambitious project which will mark the Quebec economy for the coming decades”.
Battery sector ????
With the arrival of a player like @BASF_Catalysts, it is a new chapter towards a sector which will eventually transform our minerals all the way to batteries. It is an ambitious project that will mark the Quebec economy for the coming decades. https://t.co/QwgYave8nm— Pierre Fitzgibbon (@MinFitzgibbon) March 4, 2022
In interview at Montreal Journal and at 98.5, the elected official spoke of a project “which could exceed a billion” dollars. Daily, Mr. Fitzgibbon said that Quebec intended to put money into the project, without specifying an amount. At the time, the government had notably advanced 38 million to the Bécancour industrial and port park so that it could prepare the ground for the development of the battery sector.
With Marco Bélair-Cirino