[SMM Express] Nemaska Lithium terminates FMC (Livent) supply Agreement

According to foreign media reports, on February 18, 2019, Nemaska Lithium announced that it had terminated its multi-year supply agreement with Livent Corporation. The supply agreement covers the annual supply of up to 8000 tons of lithium carbonate (a total of 28000 tons during the contract period) from April 1, 2019.

SMM reported last August that "Nemaska Lithium signed a five-year supply agreement with Northvolt." Under the agreement, Nemaska Lithium agreed to pass its wholly owned subsidiary Shawinigan Transformation Inc. Supply its commercial plant with up to 5000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide per year. Although Northvolt has agreed to purchase lithium products by acquisition or payment, Northvolt will receive no less than 3500 tons of lithium hydroxide per year for at least five years at the beginning of commercial production at the Shawinigan plant.

It is reported that in June, battery maker Northvolt had begun building Europe's largest lithium-ion battery plant in Sweden, and the company had obtained environmental permission for the first phase of the project that month. The project is designed to help Europe reduce its reliance on battery supplies from China and South Korea in the future. The construction of the first phase of the project is expected to be officially put into production in late 2020, and the battery capacity of 8GWh will be produced each year. Peter Carlsson, co-founder, chief executive of Northvolt and former chief executive of Tesla, hopes the new plant will be comparable in size to Gigafactory, an American electric car maker in the desert of Nevada. The goal is to reach 32GWh each year by 2023. "Northvolt has launched a financing plan to support the next phase of investment, construction, materials and equipment until the first phase of construction of the plant is completed," Carlsson said in a statement. The company also said the plant would produce the world's greenest batteries, accelerating the transition of the European battery industry to renewable energy. Siemens and other companies have invested in the project and provided digital enterprise technology to help the company build factories.

Nemaska Lithium is a growing chemical company with businesses ranging from spodumene mining to the commercialization of high-purity lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate. These lithium salts are mainly used in the fast-growing lithium-ion battery market, driven by growing global demand for electric vehicles and energy storage. With its products and processes, Nemaska aims to promote access to green energy for the benefit of mankind. The company will operate the Whabouchi mine in Quebec, Canada, one of the world's richest spodumene deposits, both in quantity and grade. The spodumene concentrate produced at the Whabouchi mine will be processed in the Shawinigan plant using a unique membrane electrolysis process, and the company also has a number of patents.

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