Panasonic awards Turner (ACS) its $4 billion battery plant in Kansas

ACS continues to grow in the United States, its main market.

Panasonic Energy has selected a consortium made up of Turner Construction (part of the ACS group) and Yates to build a battery manufacturing plant for electric vehicles in De Soto, Kansas, in the United States, as reported by the companies on Wednesday.

In addition to the assembly facility, the award includes the construction of a central utility plant and support buildings and is part of a total investment program of 4,000 million dollars (3,750 million euros at current exchange rates).

When it presented the project last November, Panasonic Energy explained that its goal was to rapidly scale up production of cylindrical “2170” lithium-ion batteries to meet growing US demand for batteries for electric vehicles.

The Japanese group company plans to begin mass production in Kansas in March 2025. Upon completion of the facility, it will maintain a total annual production capacity of approximately 30 GWh to supply electric vehicle manufacturers across the United States.

For Turner, this is the largest construction contract he has won so far this year in the United States.

The main subsidiary of ACS in the country also announced in February that it will build a facility to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients in Frederick (north of Denver, Colorado) for an amount of 725 million dollars (about 680 million euros at current exchange rates). .

At the start of the year, Turner has also achieved a project of 73 million dollars to build a university residence in British Columbia (in Canada) and another of 85 million dollars for a building on the Fort Worth campus, in Texas, both in consortium with other firms.

Last year, Turner won with other firms a large contract of up to 3,500 million dollars for the construction of a battery factory for electric vehicles in Fayette (Ohio) for Honda and LG Energy and another of up to 1,000 million dollars for Ascend Elements, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Like Panasonic, these are consortium awards that are part of investment projects that not only include construction.

In its latest quarterly results, presented this week, ACS avoids quantifying the amount of the Honda-LG and Ascend contracts and indicates "not available" in the figure box, but places them first among the main awards of the year.

The United States is experiencing a fever of industrial investment due to its own economic strength and the incentives provided by the Government to relocate the supply chain and factories in strategic sectors to the United States.

For ACS, with its construction and concessions businesses, the United States has stood out as the group's main market.

In 2022, it obtained revenues of 18,837 million euros in the country, 27% more than the previous year and 56% of the total billing of the group, according to the recently presented accounts.

In 2022, the ACS group was awarded the construction of the 16.2-mile light rail line in the country that runs from Bethesda to New Carrollton, in Maryland, for around 1,300 million euros, through Dragados USA.

It also won, through its subsidiary Pulice, a contract for the expansion and improvement of the IH35 highway in Travis County (Texas), for around 660 million euros.

That same subsidiary won the construction of a 12.2-mile toll facility in Hidalgo County (Texas) for about $250 million.

Picone was awarded a €338 million contract at the end of last year for the installation of a combination of retaining walls and deployable barriers to protect infrastructure and reduce the risk of flooding from the Brooklyn Bridge to Montgomery Street in NY.

Flatiron, also a subsidiary of the group, was awarded the project to improve the safety of the chemical and disinfection systems at the Orinda (California) water treatment plant, for 267 million.

Turner was awarded the construction of the new health education building on the Lexington campus of the University of Kentucky for €225 million.

With these contracts and many other smaller ones achieved by its different subsidiaries, ACS' portfolio in the United States amounted to 33,504 million euros, half of the group's total, at the end of 2022.

The Panasonic plant (in which the amount that Turner is responsible for billing has not been revealed) and the other contracts achieved so far this year have fattened that portfolio.

“We are very pleased to be part of the team delivering this plant to support Panasonic's goal of meeting the growing demand for high-quality batteries from its automotive partners,” said Jim Brownrigg, vice president of Turner Construction Company, via a statement, following the announcement of the deal for the Panasonic plant.

“The team shares a common goal to improve environmental performance and is committed to reducing on-site greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption during construction of the facility,” he added.

“This is a very exciting project for the Kansas City region and for our company,” said William G. Yates III, president and CEO of Yates Construction, one of the largest advanced manufacturing and electric vehicle battery contractors in the United States. Joined.

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