Ascend Elements, Other Players Grow U.S. Battery Metals Market

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Ascend Elements (Westborough, Massachusetts) is riding a wave of public and corporate enthusiasm for battery technology. The eight-year-old company has raised $542 million this year to expand its supply chain for recycled battery materials. Ascend is among the companies developing their outlook based on an expected growth in demand for materials necessary for the lithium-ion batteries that fuel electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable-energy sources. Industrial Info is tracking about $7 billion worth of active and planned projects across the U.S. for the development of battery metals, new or recycled, including nearly $1 billion in projects already under construction.

Click on the image at right to see a graph detailing battery-metal development projects across the U.S., by parent company.

Ascend obtained $460 million of its $542 million from Series D investments, which were backed by entities such as Qatar Investment Authority (Doha, Qatar) and Decarbonization Partners, which is a joint venture between BlackRock Incorporated (NYSE:BLK) (New York, New York) and Temasek Holdings (Singapore). These funds follow $82 million of investments from earlier this year. Ascend will put the funds toward ongoing construction of its Apex 1 cathode active materials plant in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which the company says will be North America's first sustainable manufacturing facility for cathode precursor (pCAM) and cathode active material (CAM), which are engineered materials used in EV batteries.

Ascend estimates the Apex 1 facility will produce enough recycled pCAM and CAM to equip up to 750,000 EVs every year. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Metals & Minerals Project and Plant databases can learn more from a detailed project report and plant profile.

Earlier this year, Ascend opened its first commercial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Covington, Georgia, which is designed to process 30,000 metric tons per year of used lithium-ion batteries and manufacturing scrap, which the company says is equal to about 70,000 EV batteries. Construction of the 154,000-square-foot plant, which Ascend calls North America's largest for EV battery recycling, spanned nearly all of 2022. Subscribers can learn more from a detailed project report and plant profile.

Other companies seeing a surge in support for their battery-recycling efforts include Redwood Materials Incorporated (Carson City, Nevada), which recently announced it has raised more than $1 billion in funding to expand its U.S. operations, including a new campus in South Carolina and an expansion project in Nevada. For more information, see Industrial Info's August 31, 2023, article - U.S. Battery Recycling and Materials Company Redwood Materials Raises $1 Billion.

Kentucky might be emerging as a hot spot for battery-material development. About 100 miles northeast of Ascend's Apex 1 facility, Lotte Chemical Corporation (Seoul, South Korea) began construction earlier this year on its $239.2 million cathode foil plant in Elizabethtown. The facility is expected to produce 36,000 tons per year of aluminum foil used in EV battery cathodes. Construction is expected to run into the fourth quarter of 2025. Subscribers can learn more from a detailed project report.

Elizabethtown also is where Advanced Nano Products Company Limited (Sejung, South Korea) is preparing to begin construction on a $50 million cathode materials plant, which is expected to finish construction next year and could be followed by a $20 million expansion. The facility is intended to supply the BlueOvalSK Battery Park in Glendale, Kentucky, which is developing EVs for Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) (Dearborn, Michigan). Subscribers can read detailed project reports for the cathode materials plant and its proposed expansion, and read a plant profile.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project Database can click here for a full list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in this article, and click here for a full list of related plant profiles.

Subscribers can click here for a full list of detailed reports for active and planned projects across the U.S. for the development of battery metals.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).