Umicore postpones its battery material recovery plant to 2032

Following an announcement from BASF on pausing battery recycling plant investments its Belgian competitor Umicore follows suite. In Umicore's earnings call the 26th of June the company revealed it will not build a recycling plant before 2032 but will instead prioritise efficiency improvements in its current

Hoboken plant.

The announcement comes after Umicore made an €1.60Bn adjustment of impairments in its battery material division, relating mostly to equipment and inventories in its Asian production. Overall the company will cut down on CAPEX as the demand from the automotive industry has fallen dramatically for the material company.

In our assessment Umicore's material recovery plant, for which a location had not yet been announced, will have an capacity of 150,000 tonnes (cell equivalent). With BASF's announcement this means a 28% cut in available material recovery capacity in 2030, something we expect to continue to fall.