Belgium – Umicore has announced it is halting construction of its battery materials plant in Canada. The company also announced job cuts as part of cost measures. Some 260 jobs are affected, 100 of them in Belgium.
Umicore is halting construction at its battery materials plant in Loyalist Canada as it feels the effects of falling demand for batteries for electric cars.
The announced job losses include the Battery Materials division, where it mainly affects its production facility in Jiangmen, China. Umicore is also going to reorganize the research and development activities in this segment. In addition, it will cease R&D activities in heavy duty diesel applications in HĆørsholm, Denmark. These activities will now be based in Hanau, Germany. For Belgium, Umicore anticipates possible job losses of about 100 positions.
The cost-cutting measures now announced by the company are in addition to the efficiency program launched in 2023. The new measures should generate an additional 40 million in annual savings.
Last summer, the company announced that it was abandoning the construction of a recycling plant for rechargeable batteries in Belgium.
