Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. hopes to further invest in battery metal production after completing capacity expansion this year. Kazunori Takizawa, general manager of the battery materials unit at the Tokyo-based smelter, said in an interview this week that the company also hopes to expand its sole electric vehicle customer Tesla's business to other automakers. "We are ready to respond to the growing market and expand our production capacity beyond what was originally planned," he said. He added that, as far as customers are concerned, the company is more interested in diversified development.
Tokyo-based market research company Fuji Keizai Group estimates that by 2035, the global electric vehicle market is expected to grow 15-fold to 11.25 million units, mainly due to China's encouragement of the electric vehicle industry and Europe The implementation of stricter environmental protection policies is expected to trigger a shortage of nickel supply.
Among them, Sumitomo Metal is Japan's largest producer of nickel through mining in the Philippines and New Caledonia. The company's Isoura plant on Shikoku Island is expected to reach a capacity of 4,550 metric tons of lithium nickel oxide per month by the end of the year, which is mainly used to produce lithium-ion batteries. But Takizawa said there is not much room for further plant expansion, which means that additional investment will involve new facilities. He said China is an attractive place given the potentially huge sales volume, but the company needs to find ways to protect its technology. The smelter also outlined plans to increase nickel production to 150,000 tons per year by 2021, which would put it third among global nickel companies, behind Vale SA and Norilsk Nickel. Industry company (MMC Norilsk nickel PJSC).