Battery sector: Ford settles in Beaconcore

TVA Nouvelles has learned that automaker Ford has undertaken preparatory work to build a cathode factory in Beconcore.

Ford’s location in the area has not been officially announced, but two sources indicate the manufacturer will settle on a large tract of land north of Highway 30 where deforestation has begun.

The factory estimated by the American company in partnership with two South Korean companies represents an investment of $1 billion, it was possible to read in various articles in recent months.

“You understand I can’t confirm. I can’t announce, but a lot of companies are very interested in the industrial park. It’s possible we’ll authorize development work on the land, but it’s too early to make announcements,” said Donald Martel, CAQ MP for Nicollet-Beconcore.

The same silence for Investment Quebec, we said in a written communication, “does not issue any comment with this file.”

Beaconcore Industrial and Port Park Company could not be more talkative. “Minister [de l’Économie et de l’Innovation] Pierre Fitzgibbon has already said that he will have to make announcements in the coming months”, most CEO Donald Oliver suggested.

Ford is the sixth player in the battery sector in Beconcore, along with GM-Posco, Nemaska ​​Lithium, BASF, Nouveau Monde Graphite and Brazil’s Vale, which is active in nickel processing.

Suddenly, activity at the Beaconcore Industrial Park reached a boiling point.

“You know, it’s an industrial park. Often we forget that. All you can see is the plantation. One day, we know it will evolve, but how will it evolve? We don’t know about the battery sector [est arrivée]. The government has made a direction,” observed the MRC de Beconcourt prefect. Mario Lyonnais.