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POSCO Future M Co. Ltd. and General Motors have secured funding from the government of Quebec and Canada. The companies received government loans for their joint project for their Bécancour CAM Project to build up the electric vehicle battery supply chain in the North American region.
General Motors and POSCO Future M were granted $300 million in Canadian dollars, or about US$221 million. This will also be used for the setting up of their Ultium CAM facility. The Korea Economic Daily mentioned that the said joint venture company (Ultium CAM) was only formed in July 2022, and it is a collaborative project between the American automaker and battery materials unit of the South Korean steel giant POSCO Holdings Inc.
The companies are currently building their cathode material production plant in Bacancour, Quebec, and they have committed $633 million for the construction of the facility. Once completed, it is expected to yield up to 30,000 tons of battery material per year. The target date for completion is within the second half of 2024.
Yonhap News Agency reported that it was Canadian Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne who announced the loan grant to POSCO Future M and General Motors on Monday, May 29, during a visit to the construction site.
The federal government of Canada and the regional administration of the province of Quebec are investing $150 million each. The financial assistance will help POSCO Future M and GM’s Ultium CAM JV in speeding up the construction and subsequently creating a stable supply chain of key battery materials in North America.
“We thank Premier Legault and Ministers Pierre Fitzgibbon and François-Philippe Champagne for their tremendous leadership in supporting our efforts to build a secure, sustainable, scalable and cost-competitive EV supply chain to support our fast-growing electric vehicle production across North America,” GM Canada’s president and managing director, Marissa Wes, said in a press release. “We at GM Canada are particularly proud to be back in Québec, growing investments and jobs in alignment with the province’s vision for the future of transportation.”
Photo by: Elishia Jayye/Unsplash
