BASF halts major recycling project in latest blow for Europe battery industry

BASF will pause the project until “cell capacity build-up and EV adoption rate in Europe regain momentum”, it said on Friday July 26.

It is the latest delay in an increasingly challenging environment for the European EV battery sector. BASF was itself forced to put its precursor battery materials plant in Harjavalta on hold following a decision by the Vaasa Administrative Court on February 21 this year.

Lower battery metals pricing have also knocked confidence in the recycling sector, according to market participants, while costs have spiraled at some projects, such as Li-Cycle’s large planned operation in Rochester, New York.

In Europe, several EV battery factories have either been delayed or cancelled over recent years, meaning that there is less input feedstock for recyclers than many firms had hoped.

Projects like Italvolt and Britishvolt have been cancelled, while ACC plants planned in Germany and Italy are on hold.

Although battery scrap generation is still relatively limited in Europe, significant capacities have been built to shred batteries and produce black mass.

But operational capacity to consume black mass remains low in Europe.

Several firms investing in post-processing technology have only been able to scale up to pilot or demonstration plant levels, with a major example being BASF, which itself has started operations at a prototype metal refinery for lithium-ion battery recycling in Schwarzheide, Germany.

As a result of the oversupply of materials in Europe, black mass payables are lower in the EU than in Asia.

Fastmarkets’ weekly assessment of the black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, domestic, exw Europe, % payable LME Nickel cash official price and of the black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, domestic, exw Europe, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end) were 55-60% on July 24, both unchanged week on week.

Fastmarkets’ weekly assessments for black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, cif Southeast Asia, % payable London Metal Exchange nickel cash official price and for cobalt, cif Southeast Asia, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end) were both 66-70% on July 24, down by 1-2 percentage points week on week from 68-71%.

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