Fortum, Valmet Automotive partners for sustainable battery materials recycling
Fortum and Valmet Automotive have announced that they have partnered to guarantee the safe and sustainable recycling of all non-conforming battery materials from Valmet Automotive's battery plants in Salo and Uusikaupunki.
"We are proud to collaborate with Valmet Automotive, a leading player in the battery systems manufacturing industry," says Tero Holländer, Head of Business Line, Batteries, Fortum.
"Our collaboration will enable us to recover raw materials from their battery production process in the most sustainable way, allowing for critical metals to be fed back into Finland's battery value chain to create new EV batteries."
Valmet Automotive's growing production volumes at the Salo plant and the start of production at the new battery plant in Uusikaupunki later this year emphasize the importance of a sustainable solution for material recycling. The scrapped non-conforming materials are collected at the Valmet Automotive plants and transported by Fortum for safe and efficient recycling.
"We consider it as part of our corporate responsibility and an essential part of our commitment to sustainable production that we not only produce the batteries themselves in a CO2-neutral way but that we also take care of the best possible solutions for recycling the batteries. In Fortum we have found the perfect partner for this," says Olaf Bongwald, CEO, Valmet Automotive.
The recycling cooperation also contributes to the development of a circular economy and sustainable development-based value chain, for which both Fortum and Valmet Automotive have received funding this year through the EU Battery Industry Innovation Project IPCEI.
In addition to battery material recycling in Finland, the cooperation between Valmet Automotive and Fortum also includes waste management at the Uusikaupunki car plant. Both companies are also exploring possibilities to extend the co-operation to Valmet Automotive's locations in Germany to be closer to key players to offer sustainable services in the fast-developing EV sector.
