The new production, combined with increased output at an existing plant, will allow Sumitomo to increase capacity from the current 850 tons to 1,850 tons per month. The positive electrode materials will be shipped, via Panasonic Corporation, to Tesla Motors, Inc., in the United States for its EVs. By increasing production, the plant will also be able to meet expected future demand as EV use becomes more popular.
Production at the new Naraha plant will make use of nickel materials produced at Sumitomo’s Isoura Plant in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture, which will be mixed at the new plant and manufactured into positive electrode materials. The new plant will first produce a sample supply, and expects to start full production in early 2017.
Speaking of the plant’s prospects for the future, Sumitomo Metal Mining President Yoshiaki Nakazato said, “We intend to increase production in accordance with demand.”
The new plant will employ 48 local residents, primarily from Naraha Town and Iwaki City. Naraha Mayor Yukihide Matsumoto said that the new plant would “contribute greatly” to the town’s reconstruction.
The plant building in Naraha is leased by Sumitomo from Nihon Kagaku Sangyo Co., Ltd., which completed it in early March 2011, but was unable to begin operations because of the giant earthquake that occurred immediately afterward.
Naraha Town was designated as an evacuation area, but the evacuation order was lifted in September 2015.
