COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Lithium-ion battery maker Northvolt said on Friday it had agreed to divest an industrial site in central Sweden that was originally intended to support its expansion as it undertakes a review of its growth plans.
Northvolt said in 2022 it had agreed to buy an old paper mill in Sweden’s Borlange which it would turn into a plant with a potential annual production of more than 100 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of cathode material and would employ up to 1,000 people.
It had said the plant would play a key role in fulfilling more than $50 billion in orders from key customers, and start the first part of its operations in late 2024.
But on Friday, the Borlange municipality said it will pay 500 million Swedish crowns ($49 million) for the site, of which a third would be sold on to a company with plans to build a facility for data centres.
Northvolt said in June it was reviewing plans for the planned plant and in July that it would undertake a strategic review to refocus its expansion plans after a series of setbacks such as production delays and BMW cancelling an order.
“I would like to express a big thank you to the municipality for a constructive dialogue and good cooperation that has led to this agreement,” Northvolt’s materials unit chief Emma Nehrenheim said in an emailed comment to Reuters.
($1 = 10.1852 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Terje Solsvik and Alexander Smith)
