The EV battery business in Canada Multibillion-dollar plant planned to bring hundreds of jobs to region Jocelyn Shepel · CBC · Posted: Jul 26, 2024
After breaking ground in 2023, the company building a plant to produce battery components for electric vehicles in a municipality near Kingston, Ont., says it's delaying construction of the plant citing a slowdown in EV sales.
The project carried a total price tag of up to $2.76 billion and was projected to create 600 jobs in the region back in 2023. According to a news release at the time from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the federal government was slated to invest up to $551.3 million.
The province was to pay up to $424.6 million, but a source familiar with the project said that as of Friday, no provincial money has flowed to Umicore.
Umicore cited a situation on June 12 when it announced that a contract with a Chinese manufacturer would not materialize. The company said its legacy contracts were tailing off faster than anticipated and there's a delay in the "ramp-up of contracts" in Europe.
"For Umicore, customers' demand projections for our battery materials have steeply declined recently," the statement reads.
The company said it's realigning its operations "to the new market reality," adding that a part of accomplishing this involves a "thorough review" of its battery materials business.
It's planning to present the conclusion of that review on its capital markets day during the first quarter of 2025.
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