South Korean battery material manufacturer LG Chem announced on December 20 that it has commenced the construction of its cathode plant located in Montgomery County, Clarksville, Tennessee, US. The company had organized groundbreaking ceremony for its cathode production plant on Wednesday.
The event was attended by guests including Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Commissioner Stuart McWhorter, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Korean Ambassador to the United States Cho Hyun-dong, Clarksville City Mayor Joe Pitts and Montgomery County Mayor Wes Golden. Key attendees from LG Chem were CEO Shin Hak-cheol, President of Advanced Materials Company Nam Chul and Head of Battery Materials Business Unit Lee Hyang-mok.
At its upcoming facility, LG Chem plans to locally produce cathode materials optimized for North American EVs and collaborate with key partners from development to supply chain. The move is aligned with the US Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law in August last year. The regulation aims to shore up battery manufacturing supply chain in the US as the world prepare to transition to EVs over the coming decades.
“Through the plant, LG Chem aims to actively respond to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of the Biden Administration, helping customers meet EV tax credits criteria. The Tennessee plant will secure a reliable supply chain for minerals and precursors from nations with US free trade agreements (FTAs). For instance, it will utilize precursors from Ulsan by Korea Precursor Company (KPC), a joint venture of LG Chem and Korea Zinc,” the company said in its press note.
LG Chem said that the company plans to invest around KRW 2 trillion ($1.6 billion) in the first phase to build its cathode plant with an annual capacity of 60,000 tons on a 1.7 million square meter site in Clarksville, Tennessee.
The company claims that the upcoming facility is going to be the largest cathode material facility in the US, capable of producing cathode materials for approximately 600,000 high-performance pure EVs with a range of 500 km annually.
Starting from 2026, the Tennessee cathode plant will mass-produce NCMA (Nickel, Cobalt, Manganese, Aluminum) cathode materials. The company said that it plans to diversify its product portfolio through future-generation cathode material products and expand production capacity in response to increasing demand.
It can be recalled that LG Chem had previously signed a long-term agreement for supply of 950,000 tons of cathode materials with General Motors (GM) last year and a North American cathode material supply contract worth $2.5 billion with Toyota in October 2023.
“With the Tennessee cathode material plant as the center, LG Chem will undoubtedly leap to become the top cathode material supplier in North America,” CEO Shin Hak-cheol commented. “LG Chem will execute the vision to become the world's leading comprehensive battery material company, establishing a stable supply chain resilient to any environment.”
