Major German chemical supplier BASF announced recently that it will be committing more resources into developing products and services related to EV batteries. To this end, the company will be investing EUR 3.5-4.5 billion between 2022 and 2030 into its battery material and recycling business. Moreover, its automotive catalyst business will be spun off into a new legal entity.
In its statement announcing this plan, BASF said the spin-off of the manufacturing of automotive catalysts along with the recycling of the associated precious metals is necessary as the company shifts its strategic focus to battery materials and base metals. Named “BASF Automotive Catalysts and Recycling”, the independent entity is structured in a way that will be more effective in responding to the changes in the market segment related to internal combustion engines. All in all, the spin-off provides more options for BASF as it prepares to adapt to future market trends.
The spin-off process, which will begin in January 2022, is expected to take 18 months to complete. The new entity, which will be headquartered in New Jersey, will continue to operate globally. Dr. Peter Schuhmacher, president of BASF Catalysts, said that BASF will keep striving to become the leader in innovations related to sustainable cathode active materials. The company will also build up production capacity in Asia, Europe, and North America.
Dr. Schuhmacher pointed out that the long-term battery strategy recently laid out by BASF aims to raise the company’s sales of battery materials and base metals to more than EUR 7 billion by 2030. Hence, multi-billion capital investments are needed in order to reach that target. As one of the leading suppliers of chemicals and materials to the automotive industry, BASF already has enormous advantages that can be leveraged to achieve dominance in the market for cathode active materials.
With manufacturing and R&D facilities around the world, the company will be expanding its product portfolio to include more cathode materials that are rich in either nickel or manganese while being low or free of cobalt. According to an article published by Reuters this September, BASF projects that the market for cathode materials will grow by an average annual rate of around 21% until 2030.
