Israeli specialty minerals company ICL (TASE: ICL: NYSE: ICL) has announced plans to build a $400 million lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode active material (CAM) manufacturing plant in St. Louis. ICL said this will be the first large-scale LFP material manufacturing plant in the US.
The company has been awarded $197 million through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding, which is subject to the completion of negotiations with the US Department of Energy. The plant is expected to be operational by 2024 and will produce high-quality LFP material for the global lithium battery industry, using primarily a domestic supply chain.
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The LFP plant represents a significant expansion of ICL’s energy storage portfolio and demonstrates the company’s commitment to developing high-quality specialty products for agricultural, food and industrial applications.
ICL explains that the demand for lithium batteries continues to grow, With electric vehicle adoption a key driver, and currently there are no large-scale manufacturers of LFP material in the US.
ICL president of Phosphate Specialties and managing director of North America Phil Brown said, “LFP is a critical solution for the US energy-storage, mobility and infrastructure market. The $197 million investment from the Department of Energy is crucial to building a domestic manufacturer, which can compete globally while providing a much-needed safety net for American manufacturers in the EV, battery and energy-storage industries.”
ICL’s 120,000-square-foot LFP plant will have two production lines built in two phases. Each production line will have annual production capacity of 15,000 metric tons of LFP material. Phase one is expected to be complete by 2024, and full production of 30,000 metric tons is expected by 2025. The new plant will be located on ICL’s existing Carondelet campus in St. Louis.
ICL partners for the project will include Aleees, which will provide the state-of-the-art LFP process technology, and McCarthy, which will oversee the management of general contracting and is also based in St. Louis.
ICL is a recipient of the first set of projects funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to expand domestic manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and the electrical grid and for materials and components currently imported from other countries.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on October 20, 2022.
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