Belgium – The disappointing sales of electric cars are also affecting Umicore’s plans to build a large recycling plant for rechargeable batteries in Belgium. The battery materials division is in deep crisis. Another planned battery materials plant in Canada is not coming either.
Bart Sap, the CEO of the Belgian company announced the news today. The disappointing market for electric cars leads to a 1.6 billion euro write-down of the battery division. That is more than half of its value. This is also a major disappointment for the entire industry.
Umicore assumes that the battery business will be loss-making until at least 2026. In the press release, Sap emphasizes that “the large write-down is painful and reflects the changed situation as we see it today.
In the coming months, Umicore will evaluate how it sees its future role as a key supplier to producers of rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles. In any case, the company is opening the door to partnerships in its battery business.
Umicore’s battery business has been put forward in recent years as the company’s major growth engine. But that German Mathias Miedreich left in mid-May with immediate effect and was replaced by Sap made it clear that something was fundamentally wrong with that engine.
