The Director General of Industry of the Generalitat, Oriol Alcoba, the CEO of the Korean company Lotte Energy Materials, Kim Yeon-seop, and the mayor of Mont-roig del Camp, Franco Morancho, have ratified their commitment to the launch in the municipality of Baix Camp of a new copper foil plant, an essential component in the manufacture of electric batteries. The three parties met this Wednesday at the group's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. This is the first meeting between administrations and the company, after the company bought ILJIN Materials in March and took over the project.
The forecast is that the new elecfoil plant will start operating in 2025, according to the ACN. The first phase of the project foresees an initial investment of almost 400 million euros for the construction of a first factory, where 30,000 tons of this high-quality and basic material for lithium batteries will be produced. In addition, 50 hectares of land are planned for solar energy generation, which will be located next to the factory. According to the Generalitat, this is the largest greenfield industrial investment in the last twenty years in Catalonia made by a company that did not have a presence before.
The meeting also allowed for the closing of the agreement to urbanistically define the project. Works are expected to begin this year in the industrial area of Comellarets, on a 44-hectare plot that will allow the implementation of more production lines. The annual production capacity will thus be able to grow to 100,000 tons of high-end elecfoil. For the mayor of Mont-roig, the implementation of Lotte "will represent a definitive boost for industrial development and the local economy."
The Mont-roig del Camp factory will be Lotte Energy Materials' second factory outside South Korea, along with one it has in Malaysia. The company currently produces about 100,000 tons of copper foil and plans to reach 240,000 tons annually by 2028, 30% of the market for this product. "We want the Mont-roig del Camp plant to become the base for supplying high-end elecfoil to the European market," said Yeon-seop.