Toda America, Inc. officially broke ground April 20 in Battle Creek for its first U.S. manufacturing facility to make lithium ion cathode materials used in battery cells for electric drive vehicles.
The project is expected to add 50 to 60 direct new high-tech manufacturing jobs, and an estimated 91 indirect jobs, says the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
The new $70 million manufacturing plant, being built on an 18-acre brownfield redevelopment site, is going up in phases.
The first phase is scheduled to be in operation by 2011.
Phase two is expected to be completed in 2013. By then it will be manufacturing 4,000 tons of finished product per year, as the company works to meet the demand of its battery manufacturing customers located in Michigan and nearby states.
The total sales volume, based on the full capacity operation at the facility, is expected to be around $130 million.
This project is supported by a competitive grant awarded to Toda by the DOE under the Recovery Act – Electric Device Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative. The Toda America project also is supported by the State of Michigan and the City of Battle Creek with economic development incentives related to high-tech jobs creation and brownfield redevelopment.
Toda America is now a joint venture between Toda Kogyo Corp. and ITOCHU Corporation through a transaction completed last month.
Tadashi Kubota, managing director of Toda Kogyo Group, says: "This is an important manufacturing investment in our quest to maintain our global leadership as the premier supplier of battery materials around the world, and now as a key local supply chain partner to the rapidly growing U.S. battery industry."
Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: David Han, Turtlerock Greentech LLC
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