Germany’s BASF has announced staff cuts at its never-launched, pending license from the authorities, production facility in Finland.
The Finnish authorities have for many years stated their support for the development of battery clusters in the country. However, in practice it turns out that the legislation does not keep up with all the changes and the industrial giants have to conduct long courts and proceedings with public organizations and activists.
“BASF received the first approval from the relevant authorities after an extensive environmental impact assessment in 2020. Since then, we have been on a painful journey. Permits have been granted, appeals have been lodged and, unfortunately, the permits have not become final,” says Tomi Oja, President and CEO of BASF Battery Materials Finland Oy.
“We are disappointed because we have received very different messages from the authorities and the administrative court. The battery industry is a dynamic market that requires large investments. Business planning needs speed, certainty and clear interpretation of the law. We have always had high expectations and we hope that these expectations will be fulfilled for Harjavalta at some point in the future. BASF remains very committed to creating an innovative, sustainable and competitive battery value chain in Europe. However, several years of uncertainty here in Finland have now led to negotiations for change. I greatly appreciate the commitment of the entire Harjavalta team despite all the uncertainty,” says Oja.
The change negotiations will start on 15 April 2024 and will last for six (6) weeks, the company said in a press release.
BASF on October 23, 2018 announced the establishment of the first site for battery materials production in Europe – in Harjavalta. The facility was built next to the nickel-cobalt plant of MMC Norilsk Nickel. The plant was scheduled to start up by the end of 2020, but ran into problems in obtaining an environmental permit from regional authorities.
The plant was expected to fully supply about 300,000 electric cars a year with BASF battery materials.
Nornickel’s Finnish refinery Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta was also expected to supply BASF with raw materials, while MMC would also supply nickel and cobalt raw materials from its Russian mining operations at market prices.