LG Chem announced today that it held a groundbreaking ceremony for its anode plant in Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee, USA, on December 19 (local time).
LG Chem will invest approximately KRW 2 trillion in the first phase to build a 60,000-ton-per-year anode plant on a 1.7 million-square-meter site in Clarksville, Tennessee. The Tennessee plant will have the capacity to make anodes for approximately 600,000 high-performance, all-electric vehicles (EVs) with a range of 500 kilometers per year, making it the largest anode plant in the United States.
The Tennessee anode plant will begin full-scale production of NCMA (nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum) anodes in 2026. In the future, LG Chem plans to diversify its product portfolio with next-generation anode products and expand its production scale in response to growing customer demand.
Previously, LG Chem signed a comprehensive agreement for the long-term supply of 950,000 tons of anodes with General Motors (GM) last year and a 2.9 trillion won North American anode supply contract with Toyota in October.
The Tennessee plant will be dedicated to North American customers and is expected to create differentiated customer value locally. Located in the middle of the United States, Tennessee has excellent geographical accessibility for customer deliveries and raw material imports. Based on the Tennessee plant, LG Chem will be able to communicate with customers locally from the development stage of anode materials and produce customized anode materials.
Through the Tennessee anode plant, LG Chem will actively support its customers in meeting the requirements of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for electric vehicle subsidies. The Tennessee plant will utilize precursors produced in Ulsan by Korea Precursor Corporation (KPC), a joint venture between LG Chem and Korea Zinc, to establish a stable supply chain of mineral precursors from countries with free trade agreements (FTAs) with the United States.
The Tennessee anode plant will advance its heat-applied process design technology to secure world-class manufacturing competitiveness of 10,000 tons per line. LG Chem will also apply smart factory technology to the Tennessee plant to automate the production process and establish a quality analysis and management system.
In addition, the company is discussing material supply chain cooperation with waste battery recyclers in the U.S., and will work with local power suppliers to run the plant with 100% renewable energy, including solar and hydropower.
"With the Tennessee plant as the centerpiece, LG Chem will provide differentiated value to customers and become the No. 1 cathode material company in North America," said Shin Shin-cheol, Vice Chairman of LG Chem. "We will build a stable battery material supply chain that can compete in any environment and realize LG Chem's vision of becoming the world's top integrated battery material company."
