Dive Transient:
- Chemical producer Albemarle will make investments $1.3 billion to determine a lithium hydroxide processing facility in Chester County, South Carolina, in keeping with a March 22 press launch.
- The ability would produce almost 50,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide a 12 months, sufficient to assist 2.4 million EVs.
- Albemarle is establishing the ability to assist meet hovering demand for lithium-ion batteries. Like different not too long ago introduced home battery crops, the positioning may even assist extra EV corporations to supply from U.S.-based materials makers to qualify for incentives from the Inflation Discount Act.
Dive Perception:
The corporate says the ability will create 300 jobs with a median yearly wage of $93,000. As well as, the mission will create over 1,500 development jobs, with work anticipated to start in late 2024.
Albemarle selected Chester County as the house of its new plant given its strategic geographic location, in keeping with CEO Kent Masters.
“We needed a location that had entry to close by rail and port transportation and the provision of expert employees,” Masters mentioned. “We additionally had a possibility to be nearer to our prospects as the availability chain is constructed out in North America.”
The corporate acquired roughly 800 acres for its manufacturing campus, with the deliberate facility set to occupy roughly 25% of that area.
South Carolina’s Coordinating Council for Financial Growth permitted a $9 million grant for Chester County to fund website preparation, migration and infrastructure enhancements associated to the mission, in keeping with a state press launch.
This is not Albemarle’s solely mission within the works. In December, the corporate introduced it was investing $180 million to construct a expertise park in Charlotte, North Carolina, the place the corporate is predicated.
Albemarle joins a protracted checklist of EV-related producers constructing services in South Carolina.
Battery recycler Redwood Supplies is presently constructing a $3.5 billion battery supplies facility in Charleston, whereas Volkswagen-backed Scout Motors is developing a $2 billion EV manufacturing facility close to Columbia. Lastly, semiconductor elements maker Pallidus is shifting its headquarters and manufacturing operations from New York to South Carolina.