A unit of South Korea’s Solus Advanced Materials Co. will revive an old plant in Canada to produce copper foils for electric vehicle batteries, with significant financial help from governments.
(Bloomberg) — A unit of South Korea’s Solus Advanced Materials Co. will revive an old plant in Canada to produce copper foils for electric vehicle batteries, with significant financial help from governments.
Volta Energy Solutions announced a C$750 million ($550 million) investment in Granby, Quebec, east of Montreal. The plant is expected to have the capacity to produce copper components for as many as 2.5 million vehicles in North America eventually, according to an emailed statement.
Quebec’s provincial government will provide a C$150 million loan, to be partly forgiven if the firm meets conditions such as maintaining 260 jobs at the plant.
“Without incentives, factories will be built elsewhere,” Quebec Premier Francois Legault said during a press conference Tuesday, adding that every given dollar must “bring in more than a dollar.”
South Korean firms have been investing heavily in Canada amid the global push to refashion the auto supply chain around electric vehicles. LG Energy Solutions Ltd. partnered with Stellantis NV to build a battery plant in Windsor, Ontario, getting as much as C$16 billion in incentives to offset capital and operating costs over a decade.
Two other ventures in Quebec, involving General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co., have been formed with South Korean firms.
The Canadian government’s financial aid to Volta may reach as much as C$70 million, though negotiations are still ongoing. Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s industry minister, said investments in green technology and transportation are “changing the Quebec economy for the next 100 years.”
The Granby copper plant was shut down in 2005 and sold in 2015. Volta now plans to go into mass production in 2026, with a production capacity of 25,000 tons per year. A second phase is expected to increase production to 63,000 tons. The company already has other facilities in Luxembourg and Hungary.
(Updates with comments from Quebec premier and Canadian industry minister)
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