SK ecoplant buys $50 million stake in U.S. battery recycler

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SK ecoplant buys $50 million stake in U.S. battery recycler

Michael O'Kronley, left, Ascend Elements CEO, and Park Kyung-il, SK ecoplant CEO, pose for a photo during a signing ceremony for a sales-purchase agreement held at SK ecoplant's U.S. office in New Jersey on Wednesday. [SK ECOPLANT]

Michael O'Kronley, left, Ascend Elements CEO, and Park Kyung-il, SK ecoplant CEO, pose for a photo during a signing ceremony for a sales-purchase agreement held at SK ecoplant's U.S. office in New Jersey on Wednesday. [SK ECOPLANT]

 
SK ecoplant acquired a $50-million stake in Ascend Elements, a U.S. battery recycling company, the engineering company said Thursday.
 
With the signing of the sales-purchase agreement Wednesday, SK ecoplant became the largest shareholder of the Westborough, Massachusetts-based company, but it did not disclose its shareholding.
 
Founded in 2015, Ascend Elements specializes in battery recycling by extracting materials, such as nickel and cobalt, from discarded lithium-ion batteries. The reclaimed elements are recycled into precursors for cathode materials.
 
The deal came about six months after SK ecoplant acquired TES, a Singaporean electronics waste recycling company, in February for $1 billion. SK ecoplant aims to create a battery recycling value chain with TES supplying discarded batteries from Europe and Asia and Ascend Elements serving as the U.S. production base.
 
TES is operating 43 electronics waste disposal facilities in 21 countries, including Britain, Germany and France, and is running battery recycling facilities in Singapore, France, China and others. The recycled batteries are from electronic devices or electric vehicles, according to SK ecoplant.
 
The engineering company said that it hopes to reduce Korea's dependence on China and other countries for battery raw materials.
 
"Through the investment in the innovative U.S. company, we established a global recycling network for the supply of discarded batteries with TES," SK ecoplant CEO Park Kyung-il said.
 
The global battery recycling market volume is expected to reach 600 trillion won ($443 billion) by 2050, from 1.65 trillion won in 2019, said SK ecoplant citing data from market tracker SNE Research.
 

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]
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