SK ecoplant to build $66M U.S. battery recycling plant

SK ecoplant CEO Park Kyung-il, left, and Ascend Elements CEO Michael O’kronley, pose for a photo during a joint venture agreement signing ceremony held in central Seoul, Tuesday. [SK ECOPLANT]

SK ecoplant will build a $65.8 million battery recycling facility in the United States with TES and Ascend Elements.

SK ecoplant on Tuesday signed a joint venture agreement for a U.S. battery recycling business with its Singapore-based subsidiary TES, an electronics recycling company, and Ascend Elements, a U.S. battery recycling startup.

With the signing of the agreement, SK ecoplant will establish a waste battery recycling joint venture in the United States, the first battery recycling business operation jointly run by Korean and U.S. companies in the country, and build a pretreatment facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

The upcoming facility, measuring 9,290 square meters (99,997 square feet), will have an annual production capacity of 12,000 tons. The construction will begin in November, and the commercial operation is scheduled to begin in January 2025.

SK ecoplant will hold a 64 percent stake in the project, with TES holding 11 percent and Ascend Elements 25 percent.

The pretreatment facility will disassemble and shred waste batteries and scrap, which are byproducts generated during the electric vehicle battery manufacturing process. The facility will also handle the extraction of black mass, which is a feedstock battery raw material extraction.

SK ecoplant acquired a $50-million stake in Ascend Elements last year to become the largest shareholder of the Westborough, Massachusetts-based company.

The signing ceremony was held at SK ecoplant headquarters in central Seoul, Tuesday, with SK ecoplant CEO Park Kyung-il and Ascend Elements CEO Michael O’kronley, in attendance.

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