Northvolt inks Lithium Hydroxide supply deal with China’s Tianqi Lithium

Sweden based battery manufacturer Northvolt has established a long-term supply agreement with Tianqi Lithium Corp, one of the largest lithium suppliers in the world.

Tianqi Lithium Kwinana, the company's processing plant based out of Western Australia will execute the agreement.

Northvolt Ett, the battery maker's planned facility in Sweden, will be recipient of the lithium hydroxide, an essential material used in EV batteries, from Tianqi Lithium. While the timeframe of the supply agreement is from 2020-25, Northvolt's plant is slated to begin operations from 2021. This plant will supply batteries to auto manufacturers like BMW and Volkswagen.

Tianqi Kwinana mentioned in a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that this deal will constitute no less than 6-10% of the company's annual capacity.Tianqi Lithium Kwinana, which started lithium hydroxide production very recently, is expected to ramp up its capacity to 24,000 tonnes within the next year and a half as a part of the first phase of expansion.

Last month, Tianqi Lithium secured a similar supply agreement with South Korean battery maker LG Chem. The three year deal which will be executed between 2020-22 is expected to eat up almost 15% of the annual capacity of the company's Western Australian location.