Northvolt in crisis forced to cut back

“We are having to take some tough actions for the purpose of securing the foundations of Northvolt’s operations to improve our financial stability and strengthen our operational performance," says Peter Carlsson, CEO and Co-Founder of Northvolt.

For some time, the company has been working on improving liquidity, after the failure of the last rights issue. In addition, BMW withdrew a SEK 20 billion order last summer, and there has been speculation that a reorganisation is underway, which the company has denied. Northvolt is working on a new strategic plan.

Parts of its content were presented on Monday. Among other things, it means that part of the factory, where cathode materials are manufactured, will be mothballed. 300 employees work there, which is 10 per cent of the company's employees in Skellefteå. Northvolt has not managed to produce cathode material of sufficiently high quality. It is therefore now buying it from China instead.

Other measures that may be considered:

The sale of the plant in Gdansk, Poland, which manufactures energy storage systems. It was inaugurated last year.

Closure of the US company Cuberg, which was acquired in 2019.

Earlier this year, plans for a battery factory in Borlänge, in Sweden, were cancelled.

What will happen to the plans in Heide, Germany, and Montreal, Canada, Northvolt will report in the coming weeks.

Lennart Håkansson

editor@northswedenbusiness.com