Ascend signs contract to supply $1B of material to major US battery manufacturer

Ascend Elements, a Westborough, Massachusetts-based provider of closed-loop battery material solutions,  has signed a multiyear contract to supply approximately $1 billion worth of sustainable precursor cathode active material (pCAM) for use in a major U.S. company’s battery manufacturing process beginning in the fourth quarter of 2024. Ascend did not disclose the name of the large battery manufacturer, and, under the terms of the agreement, the customer has the option to expand the contract to a larger quantity with a value of up to $5 billion.

RELATED: Ascend Elements breaks ground on Kentucky facility

According to a news release from Ascend Elements, the deal signals a shift in worldwide battery material supply chains as Ascend builds one of North America’s first commercial-scale NMC (nickel, manganese, cobalt) pCAM manufacturing facilities in southwest Kentucky.

“Nearly 100 percent of the world’s pCAM is produced in Asia,” says Mike O’Kronley, CEO of Ascend Elements. “There is no reason we can’t manufacture critical battery materials like this in the United States. In fact, we need to manufacture our own battery materials to secure the supply chain in North America, reduce carbon emissions and ensure our energy dependence.”

The Ascend facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, will serve as a sustainable cathode manufacturing facility with the capacity to produce NMC pCAM for up to 750,000 electric vehicles per year. In October 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded two matching grants totaling $480 million to Ascend to help accelerate construction of the southwest Kentucky facility. Ascend says it plans to invest more than $1 billion in the facility.

Ascend uses a patented process known as Hydro-to-Cathode direct precursor synthesis to manufacture NMC pCAM and CAM recovered from used lithium-ion batteries and battery gigafactory manufacturing scrap. The company says the process eliminates several intermediary steps in the traditional cathode manufacturing process and provides economic and carbon-reduction benefits.