South Korea-based chemical company LG Chem, a subsidiary of tech giant LG, will invest $820m to build a battery cathode material plant in the US state of Tennessee, according to a company statement.
The move follows LG Chem’s announcement last year that it would invest $3bn through 2027 in the project. This September, it opened a European Customer Solution Centre (CS Centre) in Frankfurt following an investment of KRW50bn ($38m).
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The centre covers a floor area of 400sqm and provides “comprehensive technical solutions” including product development, quality improvement and productivity enhancement for customer companies and partners.
LG Chem has a market capitalisation of $34.8trn. When markets opened today (15 December), the company’s share price rose from $361.01 to $379.08 at the time of reporting.
Battery cathodes are in demand following the rising popularity of lithium-ion batteries. They are usually made of cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), flammable liquids, graphite, manganese (Mn) and lithium (Li). GlobalData experts expect cobalt cathodes to gradually replace nickel ones, mostly because nickel is often challenging to extract and purify.
