Taiwanese firm halts plan to build $1B battery plant in B.C

A $1-billion lithium-ion battery cell production plant that was planned for Maple Ridge, B.C., has been shelved. The parent company, Taiwan Cement Corp., announced the construction of the Canadian plant with much fanfare last year, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby attending and promising a combined $284.5 million in government funding. Taiwan Cement Corp. company chairman Nelson Chang is quoted in a statement saying that the plant construction has stopped in order to focus on Taiwanese production, in step with other battery makers suspending similar projects across North America. The corporation's E-One Moli facility has been operating in Maple Ridge since 1990, but expanding the plant was estimated to bring 350 new permanent jobs in addition to safeguarding the current 100 positions at the site. The B.C. government promised to contribute $80 million at the time toward the facility, while the federal government pledged $204.5 million as part of Ottawa's strategy "on securing key battery manufacturing facilities."

The statement from Chang says E-One Moli has informed the Canadian government of its decision to halt the plans, adding that it will be "very difficult" for the company to build new plants abroad before achieving full efficiency at its Taiwanese facility.

A spokesperson for E-One Moli's offices in B.C. said in an email to CBC News that they have no further comment on the matter. Adrian Dix, B.C.'s energy minister, said the province was disappointed to hear of the delay, which it understood to be due to a changing global lithium battery market.

"Adjustments in the energy sectors are not unique to British Columbia — they're part of a global recalibration driven by market conditions," he said. "Our province remains well positioned to adapt and continue attracting investments thanks to our skilled workforce, supportive policies, and abundant clean energy resources." In an interview, federal Science and Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne agreed, saying that Canada was still on track with its wholesale attempts to electrify transportation.

"If you look at Tesla, it took them 17 years to be profitable. They had the support of the U.S. government," he said. "So yeah, you know, readjustment in the short term for a strategic vision for the long term, I think, is what you've seen when you have a breakthrough technology."

A spokesperson for Champagne's office says they've heard from the company about the decision to halt the B.C. plant, adding that none of Ottawa's pledged funds had been disbursed.

Scott Dunbar, a professor at the University of B.C.'s department of mining engineering, said he wasn't surprised by the news that the expansion was being put on hold. "It's just a sign of the demand for batteries that this plant would produce is just not there, or not in the quantities that they want, or they need ... to make the plant work," he told CBC News.

Dunbar said that Canada itself had deposits of lithium, and governments needed to think seriously about extracting it and processing it within the country. Werner Antweiler, an economist at UBC's Sauder School of Business, said that there was global uncertainty around electric vehicles, as incentives to buy them were being withdrawn in countries like Germany.

"We see uncertainty politically in Canada and the United States about the continuation of incentive schemes, and therefore the demand for electric vehicles may not grow as rapidly as originally projected," he said. Antweiler said that the high upfront costs for an EV remained a stumbling block for some consumers, even though the total operating costs were lower than that of a traditional gas-driven vehicle.

"Until the prices of batteries come down, the uptake will be slow, but once we get to that critical point, uptake will be very rapid," he said.