The French facility, which is expected to open in 2024 and
complement similar sites under development in Germany and
Norway, will break down lithium-ion batteries that power Kion's
forklifts and other heavy machinery, giving Li-Cycle a fresh
source of batteries to recycle beyond the consumer automobile
market.
Li-Cycle declined to disclose how much it is spending on the French operation, though the company has a $40 million budget for the year to build such battery processing facilities across the globe.
"We believe strongly in a regional approach to recycling as
our customers begin to localize their own supply chains," Tim
Johnston, Li-Cycle's executive chairman, told Reuters. "Europe
continues to be a growth center for electrification, so we are
going to continue to grow there."
Li-Cycle estimates that a majority of Kion's 1.7 million
forklifts will eventually be powered by lithium-ion batteries.
Given their heavy use, those batteries are likely to wear down
faster than those powering consumer automobiles.
Li-Cycle's European plan is based in part on its North
American hub-and-spoke network, in which the company has built
collection and processing facilities across the continent to
turn batteries into black mass, which is essentially shredded
battery parts.
A central facility under construction in Rochester, New
York, will further break down that black mass into lithium,
nickel and other metals. Li-Cycle plans for now to produce black
mass at its French and other European sites, and then ship that
material to Rochester for processing, Johnston said.
The French announcement comes less than a month after
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited
Li-Cycle's battery processing facility in Ontario.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder
Editing by Bill Berkrot)
