Belgian battery component maker Umicore will invest €300m to increase its production for lithium-ion batteries sixfold by 2020, due to growth in demand for electric vehicles.
The extra capacity will be to meet demand from Chinese electric cars and buses, and European carmakers, which are expanding electric car fleets, the company’s chief executive said.
Umicore said demand for the company’s battery materials is “outpacing the market by a significant margin and the increased capacity will enable Umicore to cater for a surge in customer orders”.
The money will be invested in Umicore’s plant in South Korea and in Jiangmen in China, it said, with first production lines expected to be commissioned in late 2018.
Along with a $160m investment plan announced last year, the additional $300m will result in a more than sixfold increase in total capacity by 2020 compared with 2015.