Toyota and SK Nexilis have entered the partnership to jointly produce copper foils in the US. Both businesses have agreed to the terms of a memorandum of understanding, which states that they are investigating the possibility of forming a joint venture. Both businesses have made it obvious that they intend to collaborate on the manufacturing and distribution of “copper foil products with the desired excellent physical properties” for the purpose of serving potential consumers in the North American market.
According to the report, SK Nexilis would be responsible for the production of copper foil under the terms of the joint investment, while Toyota’s trade arm Toyota Tsusho would work to convince battery producers in North America to buy the foils.
The two business partners anticipate that the manufacture of batteries in North America will increase “explosively” beyond the year 2025. At the same time, local copper foil manufacturing in North America is less than 1,000 tonnes per year; hence, Toyota Tsusho and SK Nexilis anticipate that there will rapidly be supply bottlenecks for copper foil; consequently, they wish to fulfill these bottlenecks with their own production of copper foil.
On the other hand, considering that the joint venture has not even been legally constituted, there is not yet a great deal of information regarding the breadth of the initiative. The objective of building a worldwide manufacturing system with an annual output capacity of 250,000 tonnes was only acknowledged by the South Korean enterprise. In addition to its manufacturing facilities in North America, the corporation also has locations in Malaysia and Poland.
The two corporations came to an agreement to work together in order to offer raw materials for batteries. On the other hand, it is likely that SK Nexilis will be the one to be in charge of acquiring the necessary copper raw materials. In Argentina, Toyota Tsusho has already established a presence in the lithium industry.