At full capacity, the global company’s plant just outside Kingston will produce enough cathode active material and precursor cathode active material to supply one million vehicles per year and bring hundreds of permanent jobs to the province
Belgium-based Umicore N.V. is building a $1.5-billion cathode active material (CAM) and precursor cathode active material (pCAM) plant in Ontario, just outside of Kingston.
The company made the announcement today in a press conference at Queens University in Kingston alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Innovation, Science and Industry minister François-Philippe Champagne and Ontario premier Doug Ford.
“Today is another perfect example that our plan to rebuild Ontario’s auto industry is gaining speed and will deliver huge wins for communities,” said Ford in a press release. “Ontario has everything it needs, up and down our homegrown supply chain, to remain and strengthen its position as a North American auto manufacturing powerhouse. Umicore plans to bring this part of the EV supply chain to Ontario which will continue to transform our auto sector and create good jobs.”
Umicore’s Loyalist Township plant, 20 minutes northwest of Kingston, will create 1,000 construction jobs and several hundred permanent positions when the plant becomes operational. At full capacity, the battery supply factory will produce enough CAM and pCAM for one million vehicles per year, Umicore says. That will equate to roughly 20 per cent of the North American EV market by 2030.
Construction is slated to begin in 2023 and the facility will come online in 2025. It’s not clear at this stage what battery cell makers Umicore may be selling to from their Kingston-area factory.
Umicore’s trajectory
Umicore is not a household name in Canada, but it does have a small presence here. The company is headquartered in Europe, but its Canadian subsidiary, Umicore Canada Inc., is located in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., and Umicore Precious Metals is in Markham, Ont.
Umicore describes itself on its website as “a global materials technology and recycling group. We reduce harmful emissions, power the vehicles and technologies of the future, and give new life to used metals.” The company was formed from a merger of companies between the late ’80s and through the ’90s. The group was renamed Umicore in 2001.
For the majority of its existence the company has been deeply involved in minerals and mining, but in 2007 it had a clearly defined clean technologies mission “including the development of new automotive catalysts, next generation rechargeable battery materials, fuel cell catalysts and membranes, and recycling processes,” reads the company site. By 2022, it had further sharpened its focus on becoming a “circular material technology company.”
“Ontario has all it takes for Umicore to establish a full-fledged, sustainable supply chain for battery materials — all the way from the mine right to the end-market of electric vehicles. This expansion in North America would complete our global rollout of regional supply chains for our automotive and battery cell customers to now three continents,” said Mathias Miedreich, CEO of Umicore.
In May, Umicore appeared in the lobbyist register for the Ontario and federal governments, applying for grant funding to be “used to build a precursor and cathode active materials production plant including the purchase of equipment for its production activities.”
Umicore further disclosed in today’s press conference that the Loyalist Township factory will run only on 100 per cent renewable energy.
An end-to-end supply chain
The demand for electric vehicles has grown and the momentum shift towards a transition to zero-emission mobility is solidifying against a backdrop of global trade instability. Canada is taking steps to create an end-to-end EV battery supply chain and pivot the automotive industry to manufacturing electric vehicles.
“Umicore’s decision to establish its new facility in Loyalist Township is another major step forward as we make Canada a global leader in producing electric vehicles — from minerals to manufacturing,” said Prime Minister Trudeau.
Since late 2020, Ontario has been the locale for a series of blockbuster investments by key industry players to build operations that feed into the North American battery and electric vehicle supply chain.
Stellantis, Ford, General Motors, LG Energy Solutions and Flex-N-Gate are among the marquee-name companies setting up EV manufacturing or battery manufacturing facilities in the province. Next door in Quebec, meanwhile, StromVolt, Britishvolt, BASF and General Motors have all made public commitments to battery manufacturing activities.
In particular, earlier this year GM and Posco committed to build a joint venture $500-million cathode active material factory in Quebec, but it will only supply GM’s North American Ultium battery factories and the plant’s full capacity output is not enough to meet North American CAM demand.
So, one of critical holes in Canada’s supply chain remains a shortage of CAM and pCAM materials — the refined mineral slurry that acts as the primary ingredient in battery cells. That hole is what the Umicore battery material factory is looking to fill.
“Canada is leading the world when it comes to the jobs of the future in the low carbon economy. Today’s announcement with Umicore builds on recent investments that our government has made to build a thriving EV battery supply chain in Canada,” said Champagne.
Umicore’s Loyalist Township facility will combine production of the pCAM and CAM in one place. As well, cathodes account for half of battery values and the production process is made more efficient by locating the factory near to a supply of critical minerals.
“This is a critical gap we’re filling in the Canadian electric vehicle ecosystem,” said Minister Champagne during the live announcement. “With today’s announcement we are restoring a key stage of the battery making process.”
