Another major project in the battery sector will come out of the ground under the supervision of a Quebec firm: SNC-Lavalin is the prime contractor for the site of the cathode materials plant – the main input of the lithium-ion battery which powers electric vehicles – from Ford and its partners in Bécancour.
It was not possible to get an idea of the value of this contract for the Quebec engineering firm, but it finds itself in charge of a construction site of at least 700 million, according to our information.
The arrival of Ford in the Quebec battery industry is an open secret. This project has been in the air since last fall and a 280,000 square meter (3 million square foot) piece of land was purchased by the American giant and its partners in the Bécancour industrial and port park last month. Contractor L. A. Hébert also began excavation work on the lot on June 26.
This plant will be the result of a partnership between Ford, the South Korean giant EcoPro BM and the battery manufacturer SK On. The official announcement is expected to take place in August. Although everything appears to be in place, SNC-Lavalin directed questions to EcoPro, which, through public relations firm National, did not offer further details.
“The threads of this project are not all attached and the date of a possible announcement is not fixed,” said André Bouthillier, executive vice-president of the firm.
In the industrial park and port of Bécancour – a privileged place for Quebec to develop the battery industry – it is the Quebec construction giant Pomerleau which is responsible for the construction of the cathode factory of the joint venture formed by General Motors (GM) and Posco. This site is located south of Highway 30, opposite Ford.
SNC-Lavalin did not specify to La Presse the details of its role with respect to the complex of Ford and its partners.
The Quebec firm has already abandoned fixed-price construction contracts, for which developers generally absorb cost overruns, in favor of engineering services.
On its website, the Quebec multinational emphasizes that its construction project management activities concern “all facets of a project”. We talk about construction, commissioning and maintenance.
At first glance, the contract won by SNC-Lavalin should be beneficial to him since it concerns a niche – the battery sector – in turmoil, underlines Frédéric Bastien, of Raymond James. The analyst, who follows the activities of the Quebec company, hopes that the firm will not lead too broadly.
The first phase of the GM and Posco complex will cost some $600 million to build. The Legault and Trudeau governments have agreed to extend half of the sum. The extent of government support in the case of Ford and its partners is still unknown, but one thing is certain, both levels of government will contribute to the project.
Even before its arrival in the province, the car manufacturer has already positioned itself in the battery sector. It has already concluded an agreement to obtain supplies of lithium hydroxide produced at the Nemaska Lithium plant. The company’s plant, 50% owned by the Quebec government, will also be built in Bécancour.
Price paid by Ford and its partners for their land in the Bécancour industrial and port park
Headquarters: Montreal
President and CEO: Ian Edwards
Industries: Engineering Services, Nuclear Power, Asset Operations & Maintenance
Revenue (2022): 7.5 billion
Workforce: 34,000 people
Main shareholder: Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (19.9%)
The LaPrade industrial park, in Bécancour, becomes public property again at a high price. The Quebec government is paying eight times the amount the seller paid to acquire it in 2016.
Victim of its own success, the Government of Quebec is running out of space to accommodate industrialists and subcontractors in the battery industry within the Bécancour industrial and port park, a state property.
Investments of 10 billion are expected there by 2025. The factories of GM-Posco, Nemaska Lithium and Ford-EcoPro are also under construction.
For the sake of efficiency, Quebec has decided to give itself some leeway by acquiring the LaPrade industrial park just to the east at a cost of 19 million.
The seller Jean Shoiry, who had paid 2 million for the land in 2016, can hardly believe in his good fortune. “Life being what it is, who would have thought that COVID-19 would be here, that the battery industry would come here? When I bought it, it was only to meet the needs of my business. It was a successful investment indeed. It’s an unplanned move, actually,” he said, letting out a laugh.
The land has an area of approximately 1.02 million square meters (11 million square feet), of which 600,000 m2 (6.5 million square feet) remains to be built.
When announcing the transaction in mid-July, the government explained that the goal is to subdivide the vast land into lots of 18,500 m2 (200,000 sq. ft.) to 23,200 m2 (250,000 sq. ft.) to meet in particular to the needs of the subcontractors of the battery material manufacturers who are in the process of setting up in the Bécancour park.
Atomic Energy Canada sold the site in 2005 for 1 million. Subsequently, the land changed hands a few times for a price varying between 2 and 3 million.
Mr. Shoiry, from the Sherbrooke area, became the owner in 2016 through Recyclage Solutions, which has since become PureSphera, a company that destroys freon from old fridges to promote their ecological disposal. In 2018, he transferred ownership of the site to his management company Résilience Conseil et Capital.
PureSphera is one of four companies currently operating in the LaPrade Industrial Park. Three of them operate in the green technology sector. The fourth company produces cannabis for recreational purposes.
In the existing buildings where PureSphera is located, two office floors are currently unoccupied and could easily be used to house research or training activities related to the battery industry, he believes.
“It’s not my expertise to develop the industrial park,” Mr. Shoiry said in an interview with La Presse. I thought there was great potential for the region. It was not really my intention to develop the park. »
Unlike him, explains Mr. Shoiry, the Bécancour Industrial and Port Park Company (SPIPB), which now manages LaPrade Park, has the financial means to develop the necessary infrastructure for its development.
Remember that last February SPIPB bought two lots totaling approximately 890,000 m2 in the industrial park. It paid five times the price paid in 2021 by the seller for these same lands.
