Lithium-Ion Battery Projects Spring Up on U.S. Great Lakes Shores

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The U.S. lithium-ion battery market took another step forward earlier this week, when LG Energy Solution, a subsidiary of LG Chem Limited (Seoul, South Korea), put the last steel beam in place for the expansion of its lithium-ion battery plant in Holland, Michigan. The 1.7 million-square-foot addition--originally designed for 1 million square feet--is just one of more than $34 billion worth of lithium-ion battery-manufacturing projects in development across the U.S. Great Lakes region, nearly $13 billion of which already is under construction.

The Great Lakes region includes Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing active lithium-ion battery projects across the U.S. Great Lakes region, by parent company.

LG Energy's $1.7 billion expansion in Holland, which began in fourth-quarter 2022, will become the company's North American production headquarters for lithium-ion battery manufacturing after it is fully completed, which currently is estimated in early 2025. The plant will produce electric vehicle (EV) batteries for General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) (GM) (Detroit, Michigan). Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Project Database can learn more from a detailed project report.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) (Dearborn, Michigan) leads all other companies in lithium-ion project spending in the region, and is preparing to wrap up a $100 million renovation of its Ion Park Lithium-Ion Battery-Manufacturing Plant in Romulus, Michigan. But that project has been overshadowed in recent months by the company's estimated $3.5 billion BlueOval Battery Park near Marshall, Michigan, which recently received nearly $630 million in support from Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) and the Michigan State Legislature. The funding was included in a $1.3 billion supplemental spending bill, signed by Whitmer in March.

Ford says the Marshall plant will be the first in the U.S. to manufacture lithium iron phosphate batteries for EVs, which will be offered to customers as an alternative to regular lithium-ion batteries. Ford says the phosphate components will make these batteries less expensive than traditional batteries that use nickel-cobalt-manganese components, although they are not expected to run as long without recharging. Subscribers can read detailed reports on the Romulus and Marshall projects.

GM isn't backing down from the competition. The company's Ultium Cells subsidiary is building a $2.6 billion battery plant in Lansing, Michigan, to supply 50 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery cells per year to its assembly plant in Lake Orion, Michigan, and other EV factories. Steel construction began in September, and GM expects to complete the plant in the fall of 2024. Subscribers can learn more from Industrial Info's project report.

Foreign-based companies also are upping their presence in the Great Lakes region. Stellantis NV (NYSE:STLA) (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Samsung SDI America Incorporated, a subsidiary of Samsung Group (Seoul, South Korea) formed a joint venture that recently began construction on a $2.5 billion EV battery plant in Kokomo, Indiana, which is designed to produce 23 GWh per year of batteries for Stellantis' EV plants across North America. The project is set to wrap up in early 2025. Subscribers can learn more from a detailed project report.

Crucial components of lithium-ion batteries include separators, which are positioned between a battery's anode and cathode to prevent them from coming into contact. ENTEK International LLC (Lebanon, Oregon) is preparing to begin construction toward the end of this year on its $1.5 billion battery separator plant in Terre Haute, Indiana, which also will cater to the market for grid energy-storage systems. The facility has an estimated capacity of 15 billion square feet of separator sheets per year. Subscribers can learn more from a detailed project report.

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 reports for lithium-ion battery-manufacturing projects in development across the U.S. Great Lakes region.

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).