fn plenty of celebrities were taken care of when the first battery cell factory on French soil was inaugurated a few weeks ago in Billy-Berclau. In addition to the heads of Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis and Totalenergies, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing also stopped by. After all, the Automotive Cells Company (ACC), which is jointly owned by the groups and is building another plant in Kaiserslautern, is the result of an industrial policy agreement between Berlin and Paris. France’s Finance and Economics Minister Bruno Le Maire spoke of a “great day for industry in Europe”.
But anyone who believed that the inauguration of the new Gigafactory would be a substantial step out of dependence on China was wrong. Because almost all machines for the production of battery cells come from the Middle Kingdom. The small remainder is of Japanese or South Korean origin, while one looks in vain for machines made in Europe in Billy-Berclau. For the time being, the dependency on China is merely continuing there – with the risk that Beijing could one day restrict the export of components or spare parts, as is currently the case with the raw materials germanium and gallium.
ACC makes no secret of the use of Chinese machines for battery cell production, which will start this year. The company would have liked to have chosen a European industrial partner in Billy-Berclau, but according to the company, there was not a single one who was able to submit even half an offer. In this machine segment, Europe has “a technological deficit that hardly exists in any other industry”, the situation is “grotesque”. For better or for worse, ACC had to fall back on established Chinese suppliers – or the project would not have been feasible in this way.
The market has doubled
Battery cell production is just one of many stages in the production of “green” technology that dominates the Middle Kingdom. When it comes to the supply of raw materials, Europe’s dependency is even greater. “The entire supply chain is in Chinese hands,” says the industry with a view to cobalt mines in Africa. When it comes to strategic raw materials, Europe is “heavily dependent on a few third countries,” admitted EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently. According to her, the EU gets 98 percent of its rare earths, 97 percent of its lithium and 93 percent of its magnesium from China. “And you can continue this list again and again,” concluded von der Leyen.
The Critical Raw Materials Act, presented by the Commission in March, is intended to remedy the situation, under which at least 10 percent of the strategically important raw materials required by the EU are to be mined here by 2030. In many other regions of the world, on the other hand, there is already a gold rush mood, as a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris shows on Tuesday. In Canada and Argentina, for example, mining projects are to be put into operation shortly. There are also notable developments in Brazil, where the Grota do Cirilo mine recently started production, according to the report.
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