BASF boss: Want to become a major player in the battery market

BASF boss Martin Brudermüller sees cathode production for battery cells in Lusatia as a step towards becoming a leader in the battery materials market.

"With our location in Schwarzheide we will serve the European market", said Brudermüller the "Tagesspiegel".

(Monday edition).

For 2030, the company is planning a world market share of around ten percent.

Ludwigshafen / Schwarzheide - BASF has acquired production facilities in the USA and Japan and 51 percent of an established manufacturer of battery materials in China.

“We want to become a major player in the battery materials market,” said the BASF boss.

In the new facility, BASF will manufacture cathode materials for 400,000 electric vehicles per year.

The chemical giant is also building a prototype system for battery recycling.

According to the company, the aim is to close the loop in order to become a leader in recycling lithium-ion batteries for the automotive industry.

The project is a strategic funding project of the EU Commission (IPCEI) and is financially supported by the federal government and the state.

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As far as capacity in Lusatia is concerned, according to Brudermüller, the company is also considering the next steps.

There was enough space for it, he told the newspaper.

This is one of the reasons why a first pilot plant for recycling batteries will be built in Schwarzheide by 2023.

“In the second half of the decade, the decision will be made on large-scale industrial recycling in order to be able to reuse nickel as a secondary raw material in particular.” It is still unclear where this project will be implemented.

The experiences and results from the pilot plant are decisive, as Linda Bottin, spokeswoman for BASF at the Schwarzheide site, emphasized when asked.

dpa